Dirk Vanbeek’s swift actions took a family out of a potentially dangerous situation after a bizzare single-vehicle incident early Saturday evening on Westham Island.
It was just after 5 p.m. when Vanbeek had picked up his daughter Zaza after her shift working at the Westham Island Herb Farm on the Ellis family property. About a couple hundred metres ahead of him on Kirkland Road was a slow-moving SUV that was driving somewhat erratically as it approached the Westham Island Road intersection. The next thing Vanbeek saw was the SUV flipped into about a four-metre long water-filled ditch in front of the Lundstrom farm.
“I raced to the corner and the car was upside down. I could hear two children screaming in the backseat. I have done some mechanical engineering and what I was most afraid about was there being a fire with the car upside down,” explained the 57-year-old Ladner resident. “I needed to get them out, but the child lock was on the door.”
With some water now in the cabin, Vanbeek was going to kick-in the back passenger side window. Fortunately, he was able to communicate with the driver who de-activated the child locks and each of the two children were unstrapped and pulled to safety. The uninjured parents were also able to get out of the car but it did take some additional help to open the passenger-side front door that was initially stuck.
Delta police, Delta fire and paramedics all arrived about 10 minutes after the incident. It wasn’t Vanbeek who called 911. His only initial thought was getting the family out of the car.
“My god, I needed a few drinks at the (Ladner) Legion after that,” laughed Vanbeek. “Normally I react very clinical in emergency situations as I have seen accidents working as a tour guide in Asia. It was just seeing the car flipped upside and (the potential) of the whole fire thing.”
