Calgary woman stranded on highway after blown tire
CBC News
Posted: Sep 3, 2012 6:38 PM MT
Last Updated: Sep 3, 2012 7:09 PM MT
A Calgary woman was left stranded for hours next to a busy highway when she blew a tire in an area with no cellphone coverage on a recent camping trip — and no one stopped to help for three hours.
Erin Harvey was headed home after a weekend of camping in Radium, B.C., when her SUV's tire blew on Highway 93.
Harvey found herself about 50 kilometres out of cellphone range, deep in a national park, in sweltering 30 C heat.
She and her boyfriend got out of the vehicle, turned on their hazard warning lights and began waving for help, but no one came.
"It's heartbreaking," she said. "I started jumping up and down — I was crying my eyes out because I was exhausted; I was dehydrated."
Harvey even resorted to writing "HELP US" in the dust across her back window, but to no avail.
"I can't even imagine how many hundreds of cars passed," she said.
"It was devastating; I was appalled. What happened to all the friendly Canadians?"
After three hours a car finally pulled over.
Brad White, a Parks Canada safety specialist, said he still sees people helping others all the time and Harvey's story is not typical.
"I think, for the most part, people still have good hearts and they're going to help out their fellow man if they're in need."
Harvey said she's still not sure what she could have done differently, but if she ever found herself on the other side of this story, she knows what she would do.
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