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Princeton Argo employees avert disaster

A potential disaster was avoided thanks to the quick thinking of three Argo employees.
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The sight of the accident and what could have been the beginning of a potential disaster if not for the actions of three Argo employees last Thursday morning.

At approximately 3 a.m., on Thursday, Jan 3 Argo employees, Dave Beliveau, Damon Beauchamp and Jerry Boyce witnessed a single vehicle accident that took place directly across from the Princeton Husky station.

The driver lost control of his vehicle veered off the highway and smashed into an overhead guy structure.  The impact snapped the angle pole causing the Guy Line attached to the pole directly in front of the Husky station to drop straight across the highway.

The Argo employees immediately sprang into action. “We were quite concerned about what could happen,” said Damon Beauchamp. “It was dark and trucks would not see that line.”

Dave Beliveau went to the bottom of the hill by Billy’s Restaurant to stop traffic from proceeding up the hill—Beauchamp and Jerry Boyce directed traffic at the accident scene.

John English, night shift employee at Husky said that he heard and felt “the big bang” and immediately called 911.

Rescue services arrived quickly on scene. Highway Rescue, BC Ambulance (to care for the lone occupant of the vehicle) and the RCMP.

Once the scene was assessed, FortisBC was called in to do the line/pole repairs.

Had a semi caught that line across the highway, it would have caused another accident or a domino effect of accidents dependent upon traffic and likely could have torn one to three more power poles  to the ground.

Kudos to all who helped out with the early morning emergency, especially to the three Argo employees who made sure that everyone on the highway Thursday morning, stayed safe.