After a Coast Taxi cab was struck by a tree branch, the company’s owner Herb Rehfeldt is hoping attention can be paid to safety issues on local roads.
Rehfeldt said one of his taxis was dispatched to the Shinglemill Pub, came to the Wildwood bridge on the morning of January 5 from the Townsite side and became held up with the construction going on at the structure.
“He [the driver] was the first person who was stopped,” said Rehfeldt. “The flag person was standing right next to him and they were waiting for the traffic to come from the other side.
“From nowhere, a branch fell down right into the windshield of my car. The windshield was damaged and there was damage to the car.”
Rehfeldt said when he found out about the incident, he phoned the highways department and told them about the incident.
“They said they could do nothing about it and that I’d have to go to ICBC,” said Rehfeldt. “I told that lady from the highways to please, at least send somebody down to the site to check out the tree before the tree falls on another car, or even kills the flag person.”
Rehfeldt said the highways department sent somebody out and suggested the flag person move 50 metres to another area for safety’s sake.
“I thought, at least from the perspective of a flagger, they should maybe look a little bit into trees in case something can come down, for their own safety,” said Rehfeldt. “In this incident, nobody got hurt, but if the flagger was a little bit more by the side of the car, he could have been killed from that branch falling down. It’s important to take a look.”
Rehfeldt said that luckily, his driver did not get glass shards in his eyes from the damage to the taxi’s windshield. The taxi has been taken to an auto-body shop for repair. ICBC will cover the damage, with Rehfeldt having to pay his deductible.
