Watch: Kelowna dump truck driver smashes green lights with box raised

Listen, everybody makes mistakes. We all occasionally forget to do something important in a moment of panic or stress and end up catalyzing some inconvenience. It’s best to laugh at these events, even when they’re expensive. 

That said, with a big truck comes big responsibility.  A big truck driver – a professional dump truck driver – was obviously in a hurry and/or tizzy recently when they drove through an intersection, maybe multiple, with the truck’s dump box in the elevated position somewhere in Kelowna, BC. Footage posted by Twitter user @robobru44 shows the truck cruising through with the box reaching for the sky, clipping the bottom half of the hanging traffic lights, bending and breaking them and sending plastic falling to the street below.  

Some cursory Google Street View research suggests the accident took place at the Ross Rd. and Westbound Highway 97C intersection in West Kelowna followed by the Bartley Rd. intersection.  The amateur videographer (who maybe illegally shot from the driver’s seat…just sayin’) can be heard swearing in incredulity as the truck drives through both lights.  “Why isn’t this guy pulling over?

Oh my god, don’t do it! He’s going to hit the light again.” This suggests the truck had already hit at least one other set of lights.  Oof!

I’ve never been to dump truck driving school, but I’ve gotta imagine “lower the box before you take off” is covered on day one. 

That said, I did once set off from a Nova Scotia rest stop with my VW Westfalia in full pop-top mode.

Maybe this explains why I write for a living.