Last Wednesday afternoon, as he waited for the 3:30 ferry to unload so he could turn onto Cardena Road, Steve Bayley says he was startled by a loud banging noise.
"And then I saw this Mercedes come flying off the ferry toward me at what looked like 100 miles an hour. For a second I thought the car was going to hit my truck but then it zipped past. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw him swerve to the left into the ferry marshalling lane and hit the Bowen Freight truck."
Ryan McCormick turned from the marina parking lot onto Bowen Island Trunk Road just before the Mercedes sped off the ferry.
"I heard what sounded like a scooter accelerating and then I saw the Mercedes come behind me, on my right, and veer left into what would be oncoming traffic."
McCormick says he was shocked by what he saw.
"If the Bowen Freight Truck hadn't been there, we definitely would've seen some high school kids get injured."
Just as the Mercedes veered, Bowen Freight employee Peter Garcia was helping a passenger out of the Bowen Freight truck. The Mercedes crashed, at high speeds into the truck and might have crushed Garcia and the passenger he was assisting, but the open truck door jammed against the parked car in the right-hand lane.
Alan Mills, owner of Bowen Freight, says that Garcia is fine, but took the next day off to recover.
"I think in this accident we got off lucky," says Mills. "The way the Mercedes flew off the ferry, we're just lucky none of the high school kids unloading got hurt, and Peter Garcia is lucky for the door that saved his life, not to mention that dangerous cargo was about to load onto the ferry. This definitely highlights the need to improve safety in the Cove."
The Undercurrent contacted the RCMP for further details on the accident, but did not receive a response.
