COMMUNITY: School Pilot Project
SPORTS: Luckies Playoffs
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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2013
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Loaded school bus collision By Jackie Lieuwen Houston Today
Submitted by RCMP
A loaded school bus collided with a pickup and then slid into the ditch off Highway 16 just west of Houston last Thursday. The bus passengers were uninjured but the pickup driver was brought to the hospital with minor injuries. RCMP are still investigating the accident but attribute it to the pickup driver’s inattention to traffic conditions and expect to lay charges.
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RCMP are investigating a head-on collision between a school bus and pickup truck Jan. 24, which landed the bus on it’s side in the ditch. RCMP Sgt. Rose says the students and bus driver were uninjured in the crash, which occurred at 3:50 p.m. on Highway 16 near Alix Frontage Rd, west of Houston. The pickup driver was brought to the Smithers hospital with minor injuries, Sgt. Rose said. He says the bus was headed to Houston with 18 students from the Smithers Ebenezer Canadian Reformed School when the collision occurred, and when RCMP arrived students were being offloaded from the bus by civilians. They were then loaded onto a Greyhound bus to keep warm, and were
checked by paramedics before being brought to Houston Christian School where they were picked up by parents, said Sgt. Rose. Sgt. Rose says RCMP attribute the collision to the pickup driver’s inattention to traffic conditions. Sgt. Rose says a westbound pickup swerved into the opposite lane to avoid hitting two other westbound vehicles which were stopped and ready to turn left off the highway. After the crash, the bus slid off the highway into the ditch, and another vehicle coming upon the accident drove into the other ditch to avoid the scene, Sgt. Rose said. A light snow was falling at the time but little had built up on the highway, and RCMP say alcohol or drugs were not a factor in the accident. Charges are expected against the pickup driver, said Sgt. Rose.
District faces deteriorating water reservoir By Jackie Lieuwen Houston Today
The District of Houston will be fixing their water reservoir in the next five years. M i c h a e l Glavin, Director of Engineering & Development Services, gave a presentation at the Jan. 22 town
council meeting about damage to Houston’s 2.27 million litre water reservoir just off Mountainview Drive. Glavin said that a quarter-inch-thick chunk of concrete was found in fall 2011 in the District of Houston reservoir during a routine cleaning. The reservoir is
“It’s over 50% of the reservoir that’s being compromised now.” - Michael Glavin, Director of Engineering & Development Services
used to store water for firefighting and manage peak hour demands for water.
Council hired Opus DaytonKnight Consultants Ltd. who did an inspection in
Sept. 2012. They sent a report to council Dec. 21, 2012, stating that they
had found cracks and exposed rebar which was starting to rust, Glavin said. “Once the rust starts, it just expands into the structure itself and starts compromising the integrity of the structure,” said Glavin. “It’s about over 50 per cent of the
reservoir that’s being compromised now,” he said. Glavin says the consultant suggests that the exposed rebar and thickness of the piece of concrete found show the reservoir was likely not built to standard. See WATER on Page 2