This photo was taken by the Victoria Times Colonist on May 8, 2006, documenting an accident that stopped traffic to and from Sooke for more than seven hours.
The editor of the Sooke News Mirror at the time, Pirjo Raits, wrote this:
“It’s the only way in and out of Sooke, and on Monday afternoon, May 8, the Sooke River Bridge was the scene of a three-vehicle accident. At approximately 2:00 pm Sooke RCMP and the fire department were called to an accident between a semi-truck and trailer and two other vehicles. The semi-trailer, travelling west, crossed the centre line when the driver apparently suffered a sneezing attack, though the RCMP could not confirm this was the case.
"The semi came to rest between the support beams of the bridge after striking two vehicles driving east. The truck knocked out several support beams on the bridge and came to rest with its tires straddling the support beam …”
“… Traffic to and from Sooke was non-existent for over seven hours as police, the fire department, the Commercial Vehicle Inspection Branch and the Ministry of Transportation inspected the accident site. Attempts to remove the truck and trailer off the bridge were hampered when one of the cranes being used to lift the rig buckled, and another crane had to be brought in.”
Victoria columnist Jack Knox, writing in December 2006, noted that “A crash that leaves a semi-trailer truck dangling from the Sooke River Bridge results in a 10-kiometre snarl of traffic .… Rapid development in the Western Communities brings the return of the Colwood Crawl, bigger and badder than ever. With thousands of homes on the drawing board, it’s only going to get worse.”
While we may all have many different opinions on local issues, on one subject, we agree: traffic delays have gotten worse since 2006. The bridge is a significant factor. The current two-lane Sooke River Bridge was built in 1967, following one built in 1946 and a series of previous structures that began with a primitive crossing built by pioneer Michael Muir in 1872.
Elida Peers is the historian of the Sooke region museum.
