Two men visiting Castlegar got more than they bargained for when their friend offered to take them sightseeing on the weekend.
The trio are lucky to be alive after the truck they were in veered off a back-country road and ended up in Arrow Lake near Syringa Park.
RCMP Sgt. Darren Oelke says police received a call Sunday afternoon that a truck was in the lake, after falling several hundred feet off the Deer Park Forest Service Road.
“After the bridge on that road, it’s very windy and steep,” says Oelke. “They hit a rock on the right-hand side of the road. It shot them over to the left-hand side and over the bank.”
The truck started tumbling down the cliffside, with the men inside. Then they caught a lucky break.
“They hit a rock, and it wasn’t quite as steep, and they managed to bail out,” he says. “The vehicle continued into Arrow Lake.
“It’s got to be 200 feet or more down to the water there, they were at the highest spot.”
The men weren’t seriously injured in the accident.
Oelke says there are always rocks on the roads there, especially this time of year with the spring freeze-thaw cycle.
The vehicle, a 2018 Dodge Ram, may be retrievable from the lake, Oelke says.
“This one can be seen from the road, and you can see the white of the vehicle,” he says. “So as long as it stays there they may be able to find it and get it out.”