Tired driver careens off Central Avenue
By Erin Perkins
A 57year-old man from Creston, B.C. blacked out behind the wheel while driving down Central Avenue in Grand Forks, causing him to leave the road, crash through a metal guard rail and land on the hood of a gray Pontiac Sunfire parked in the Video Express parking lot.
Grand Forks RCMP and the first responders with the Grand Forks Fire Department arrived on scene at about 10:50 a.m. Thursday, April 5.
The man was driving a gray Nissan X-Trail westbound down Central Avenue on his way to Vancouver when he claims he blacked out, said Grand Forks RCMP Constable Menno Van Agteren, who was on scene. The driver told police he’d had very little sleep the night before.
The vehicle drove off the road, narrowly missed a pole and a tree, went through the metal guard rail and landed on the hood of the Sunfire, which was pushed backwards toward the Video Express building.
The man was taken to Boundary Hospital in Grand Forks where he was later released with no injuries and a “clean bill of health”, said Van Agteren.
No one was in the Sunfire at the time. It was unfortunately the only vehicle parked there when the gray Nissan X-Trail came down on top of the hood.
Van Agteren said the situation could have been much worse had there been someone walking along the sidewalk or the driver had turned into oncoming traffic.
The couple who owned the Sunfire said they’d only just finished paying it off. Estimated damage is $3,000 to each vehicle and a new section of guard rail,which is City of Grand Forks property.
“The RCMP encourages people not to drive when they’re sleep deprived,” said Van Agteren.
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