Pickup truck driver goes ‘on a rampage’ in Vernon

VERNON – The driver of a pickup went on a rampage in Vernon yesterday afternoon and a witness says it looked like "something out of a movie."

Jason Spencer, who works at Central Tarp on Kosmina Road, says around 4 p.m., Nov. 18, a “crazed driver in a blue pickup truck went on a rampage” in front of his office in the Middleton Mountain area trying to run down people, hitting a power pole, smashing a fire hydrant and hitting a number of vehicles and buildings before the RCMP caught up with him.

Spencer says the pole was almost sheared off completely. In the parking lot, the driver revved his engine “laying a smoke show,” before slamming the truck into gear and doing doughnuts.

“He was driving crazy. He left skid marks up to 50, 60 feet,” he says.

The driver then lined himself up with a fire hydrant near the exit of the parking lot, revved his engine, slammed the truck into gear and drove straight into it knocking it off its foundation. Spencer says the truck screeched out onto the street, tipping slightly on two wheels, just barely missing another vehicle in the intersection.

“He displayed no emotion. We were yelling and waving our arms,” Spencer says, adding he was terrified the man would run over kids walking into the nearby martial arts studio.

“He had no care for anyone on the road. If somebody hadn’t been paying attention – I don’t even know.”

Police said in a news release Friday, Nov. 20, they found and arrested the driver who was later released while police investigate.

— Story updated at 6:39 a.m. Nov. 20 to include update from police.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Dana Reynolds at dreynolds@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.