The driver of a dump truck involved in a fatal crash north of Vernon on Tuesday says it may be a while – maybe never – before he gets back behind the wheel of a big rig. Will Oben is calling for the extension of concrete center barriers along the section of Highway 97 along Swan Lake and north along Highway 97A in Spallumcheen. This follows Tuesday’s accident in which a pickup crossed the center line, colliding head-on with Oben’s dump truck. The driver of the pickup, a 69-year-old Enderby man, was pronounced dead at the scene. “If the barriers were there, they would have prevented him from crossing the center line and maybe saved his life,” Auben said Thursday. “I would like to see something done.” Oben is back home after being released from the hospital, but says he’s “really confused” about the ordeal. He plans to attend counseling and says, “It’s going to be a while before I get back in a truck … maybe never.” Oben’s voice broke and he teared up as he was overcome with emotion. “I wish I could have stopped sooner… but it’s hard to stop when you’re on something this big and heavy.” He said his memory of the incident is hazy, but he can’t get the vision of the demolished front end of the pickup out of his mind. He’s had other close calls with bad merges on Blattner Road further north on the same stretch of road, and a few years ago he put a woman in the back of his trailer in California. “A lot of people drive fast on that stretch,” he said of Highway 97A … barriers would be helpful.” The same issue arose after a fatal 2019 crash near Armstrong that claimed the life of Ruth Blenko. Blencoe’s husband, George, made a similar call for motorway barriers, which were installed two years later in 2021 on that stretch of motorway.
