Two travellers, one heading west and the other east had a chance meeting on Friday, July 20 that neither had expected.
At approximately 12:10 in the afternoon, local resident Jack White was headed back into Princeton during the torrential rainstorm.
“It was coming down so hard I could barely see,” said White, “my wipers were going full blast.” White said he saw a semi unit coming towards him—then he noticed that the truck had started to jackknife, then hydroplane right across into his lane. “The guy wasn’t even going fast, he said, the road just turned into a skating rink—there was so much water.” “It scared the hell out of me!”
White said that while the back end of the truck was coming at him he thought... choose...the ditch or the truck.
He drove his car into the ditch in order to get out of the way and watched as the semi flipped while going past him— landing on its side.
White immediately called 911 asking for Ambulance, Highway Rescue and the RCMP.
During the moments White was making those calls more highway travellers stopped and assisted the driver of the rolled semi.
While the driver was being attended to by the paramedics, White was able to shake his hand. White said the driver apologized to him saying “I’m so sorry, that must have scared you.” White assured the driver that it was not his fault at all.
While sharing the experience with The Spotlight, a still visibly shaken White said he was grateful that the driver had not been hurt worse and that there had been no other vehicles in the immediate area when this happened.