The driver of the overheight truck that slammed into the Highway 10 overpass earlier this week, leaving afternoon traffic snarled for hours, has been fined.
Just after 2 p.m. Tuesday, the truck, which was heading south on Highway 99, hit the overpass. Police had to close Highway 99 southbound and Highway 10 in both directions for several hours while engineers were called in to assess the damage.
Thousands of afternoon commuters were affected as drivers had to divert onto other roadways to get around the closures.
Cpl. Robert McDonald, a spokesperson for RCMP E Division Traffic, said the driver, who had a permit to carry an oversized load, was on the second trip of the day when he ran into the overpass.
The first load made it under Highway 10 with no problems, but on the second trip of the day, the load, what appeared to be a large metal cylinder, ended up being too high and smashed into the overpass, causing a significant amount of damage.
McDonald said the driver was fined $115 for the over-height load, as well as $132 for not properly maintaining his logbook. He said the provincial commercial vehicle inspection unit was also called in to investigate and issued more than $400 in fines for minor defects to the truck.
By late Tuesday night, traffic was moving again on Highway 99.
The Highway 10 overpass has been reduced to one lane with alternating traffic and will remain that way for some time, McDonald said.
