THURSDAY
S I N C E
MAY 16, 2013
1 8 9 5
Vol. 118, Issue 77
105
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Orioles set to start season Page 9
INCLUDING G.S.T.
PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALMO
Fatal truck accident investigation points to malfunction and error BC Coroners Service hasn’t released name or its final report BY SHERI REGNIER Times Staff
SHERI REGNIER PHOTO
The district election office was a hub of activity on Wednesday. The staff was busy preparing for the final vote count which includes absentee ballots. Don Vinish, Kootenay West electoral district officer, said that the final count takes much longer to process than the initial count, but will be completed by the end of May.
Voter turnout continues to slide BY SHERI REGNIER Times Staff
No matter how you spin it, only half of B.C.’s eligible voters turned up at the polls to help decide who governs the province for the next four years. Across B.C., 3.15 million people were eligible to vote, but only 1.62 million voters cast a ballot. That means a 51.4 per cent voter turnout, down from 52 per cent in the 2009 election, resulted in a majority Liberal government. The turnout in the Kootenay West riding was slightly better at 53 per cent, meaning 16,837 ballots were cast from 31,290 eligible voters. “The turnout was similar to the last election, but less than
we thought,” said Don Vinish, Kootenay West district electoral officer. He said that with the increase in advertising, he thought there would be more interest. “You couldn’t go anywhere without seeing it, and yet it didn’t result in more people voting,” he said. “Which is really sad.” Staff at the BC Elections office in East Trail began sorting through mountains of post election papers and booklets on Wednesday. “People across the world will literally die to vote, and yet people here are so apathetic that they don’t even come out,” said Vinish. Katrine Conroy, NDP candi-
date, received 10,606 votes or 62.99 per cent of the popular vote. B.C. Liberal Party candidate Jim Postnikoff was second with 3,592 votes, or 21.33 per cent of the support. In third place, was independent Joseph Hughes, with 2,239 or 13.3 per cent of the popular vote followed by another independent, Glen Byle, with 400 votes and 2.38 per cent of the support. Hughes told the Arrow Lakes News when he did get an opportunity to meet his constituency, he was surprised by the apathy. “It’s unfortunate. People say ‘I don’t vote, I want the world to change but I don’t vote. “(Apathy) didn’t bother me before, but now it does.”
West Kootenay Traffic Services has concluded mechanical malfunction and driver error contributed to the cause of the fatal truck accident at the bottom of the Rossland hill on May 3. The Commercial B Train truck was fully loaded with cement blocks when it lost control at the intersection of Highway 3B and Tennyson Ave. and careened off the road into an empty field killing the driver and injuring a Village of Warfield employee who was working nearby. The BC Coroners Service, which is also investigating the accident, has not released its final report or the name of the deceased driver. “This driver was a little unfamiliar with the area,” Corporal John Ferguson told the Trail Times on Wednesday. “What we think happened is that one of the brakes on his rear trailer was not working properly. This, combined with the driver trying to downshift and mistakenly putting the gear into neutral, caused the truck to gain momentum.” Ferguson explained that this theory can never really be proven, but by mistakenly shifting gear, and overheating the brakes, the truck became “like a rolling ball that could not be stopped.” “We will never know why he didn’t use the runaway lanes, but it is speculated that he thought he
could get the truck back into control by shifting gears.” The 50-year-old Ontario truck driver had been employed with Sutco Contracting, a Salmo-based trucking company, for two weeks. The day of the accident, the truck was headed to Korpack Cement Products in Annable to deliver cement cinder blocks before heading to the Salmo yard. “Most truckers will go through Castlegar and then head back up the hill,” said Ferguson. “You may see a lot of full trucks going up the hill, but most heading down are empty.” Warfield Mayor Bert Crockett said that the village met with the Ministry of Transportation and Highways last Friday to exchange information and discuss the need for an arrestor bed or bypass on the hill. “We will try to pursue this and push it but we really need to wait until we have all the information,” said Crockett. “We don’t want to make any knee-jerk reactions, so until the coroner releases a final report, we don’t want to make decisions based on emotion.” Glen Wakefield, Director of Human Resources at Sutco, said that although there are preferential routes to drive, ultimately the decision is up to the driver. Wakefield said that the driver came to the company with 13 years of verified driving experience and passed all criteria required for employment. “It was horrific and there is not one person in our building who does not mourn for our driver.”
Smokies take financial hit BY JIM BAILEY
Times Sports Editor
The Trail Smoke Eaters held its annual general meeting at the Trail Memorial Centre Tuesday, and the news from the board went from bad to worse for Smokies supporters. Team president Tom Gawryletz
announced the Smoke Eater organization lost over $60,000 last season. That’s almost $25,000 more than the previous year, and over $80,000 difference than in 2011, the last year the team made the playoffs and a profit. See TRAIL, Page 9
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