A Powell River man died in a horrific crash in Davis Bay Wednesday night. His pickup truck jumped a concrete barrier and hit a tree so hard that the truck was smashed to pieces and the tree was uprooted.
The driver died immediately from the impact. There were no passengers in the truck, and no other vehicles were involved.
At the accident scene Thursday morning, Sunshine Coast RCMP Const. Kurt Rosenberg said, "Speed is definitely being considered as a factor."
The 28-year-old man was driving north on Hwy. 101 around 11:10 p.m. in a '79 Ford pickup truck. At the sharp curve just before the Davis Bay beach, the truck crossed the highway and ran straight into the concrete barriers on the beach side of the road.
"From the barriers, the vehicle vaulted into the two trees where it came to a rest," said Rosenberg. "He wasn't wearing a seatbelt, not that that would actually have mattered in this case."
The Sechelt Volunteer Fire Department used the Jaws of Life to extract the driver's body from the wreckage.
Rosenberg said besides the speed of the truck, several other factors might have contributed to the accident.
"It was a torrential downpour. Visibility was poor. Alcohol is still a possibility. We're not ruling anything out yet," he said.
Rosenberg and Const. Mike Etele took measurements of the accident scene on Thursday morning while awaiting the arrival of an accident reconstruction expert from Vancouver.
The highway was closed and traffic was being re-routed through Davis Bay as police continued their investigation.
At press time, police had not released the driver's name.
