Image Credit: Walter East

By James Peters

Vehicle Damage

Driver on the hook after hitting dislodged sewer access cover in Kamloops Monday

Aug 9, 2022 | 12:12 PM

KAMLOOPS — UPDATE (Wed., Aug. 10): The B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure issued this statement to CFJC Today:

Safety is the ministry’s top priority and we are looking into Monday night’s incident.   

No road work or maintenance activity was occurring in the vicinity, so it’s not known how the manhole cover got onto the highway.

Upon being notified, the ministry’s maintenance contractor, Argo Road Maintenance, responded immediately and closed the affected travel lane to ensure the safety of highway users.   

Information about the ministry’s claims process is available here: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/transportation/driving-and-cycling/licensing-and-insurance/highway-claims.

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EARLIER: A Pritchard man says he shouldn’t have to take the financial hit after his vehicle was damaged by a dislodged piece of highway infrastructure in Kamloops Monday night (Aug. 8).

Walter East was driving eastbound on the Trans Canada Highway near the Peterson Creek Bridge at about 8:45 p.m. Monday when his vehicle struck a sewer access cover that had been dislodged and was lying on the driving portion of the highway.

Image Credit: Contributed

“It completely destroyed my passenger-side front tire and rim,” East told CFJC Today. “I called ICBC, and they’re telling me because it’s a collision deductible, it would affect my insurance premium.”

The cover was returned to its proper spot, but not before several other vehicles hit it.

“I had pulled over and I was changing my spare tire and, in that 20-minute-to-half-hour span, I had visually seen four other vehicles parked on the side of the highway with blown tires,” he said.

East estimates the cost of repairing the damage to be in the hundreds of dollars, perhaps stretching into the thousands if he finds further damage to his vehicle. His insurance will cover the repairs, but he will need to pay the deductible and his premiums will rise.

“I just don’t understand how I, as a driver, am responsible for the damage when that was completely out of my control,” said East. “Whether it be Argo Road Maintenance or the Ministry of Transportation, I think somebody should kind of take the brunt of it, because it wasn’t just me that is suffering from it. There are multiple people.”

CFJC Today has reached out to both Argo and the provincial Ministry of Transportation, but has yet to hear back from either.