A driver is lucky to be unhurt after his car slid off Highway 16 during a heavy rainstorm and fell wheels-down onto some shoreline rocks in Skidegate.
At around 5 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26, a man was driving on Highway 16 past Jags coffee shop when he swerved to avoid a deer.
The car tires lost grip, and the car slid right off the highway, rolled over as it fell down the steep embankment, but stopped right-side up on the rocky shoreline.
Sergeant Chris Manseau, detachment commander with the Daajing Giids RCMP, said the driver was not only lucky to survive the crash unhurt, but also that the car stopped just short of the rising tide.
The driver managed to climb up the embankment to safety. The car was hauled out of the water by a tow truck the following day.
Neither speeding nor driver impairment were factors in the crash, Manseau said, only the deer and pooling water on the highway.
Later that same day, the storm brought down trees that stopped traffic on other parts of Highway 16 near the Skidegate industrial park and in Tlell near Wiggins Road.
Manseau said the crash was a good reminder for local drivers to make sure their vehicles are in good working order and outfitted with winter tires when the season comes.