Damage caused to truck by a flying rock kicked by a weed whacker A West Kelowna man is frustrated after his truck was damaged by public works employees on Westbank First Nation land. Stu Gallo says he was driving on Sneena Road Wednesday morning, along the curve between the WFN offices and the traffic circle, when his truck was “completely smoked up” by a flying rock. The rock was thrown by weed workers digging up the green space next to the road. When Gallo contacted WFN to complain about the incident, he was told there was a sign warning drivers of flying debris. But that sign, Gallo said, was just feet from where the work was being done. “So my options when I see that sign are to stop and block traffic or make an illegal U-turn. Or just move through the flying debris,” Gallo said. “It’s a matter of public safety. If that rock had been a foot higher, it would have gone through one of the side windows of my truck, and my mother was sitting in the front and my one-year-old son was sitting in the back.” Gallo said he was unable to get an apology or acknowledgment of wrongdoing and noted that weed-clearing operations continued even after his truck was destroyed. “I said you should think you need to review your policy or your risk assessment here. And he just said ‘tough mate to deal with’, he continued. Gallo says he feels the workers were careless. “When you’re running on a weed machine, you can throw things to the left, or you can turn around and throw things to the right. When I’m weeding, I don’t mow, so things fly into my house … these people were mowing the weeds, so things fly into traffic,” he said. Gallo suggested that the road should have been closed during the work or should have been done at a less busy time, or at the very least, the warning sign could have been placed in a spot that would have allowed the driver to turn around safely . Gallo says he has filed a claim with ICBC for the damage to his truck. WFN’s communications department did not respond to a request for comment on the situation.
