On November 14 at 1:32 p.m., a Telus supervisor reached out to the Elk Valley Regional RCMP regarding the cellular and internet outage which effected the areas just to the north of Hosmer and through Sparwood to Elkford.

The outage, which started at approximately 6:11 a.m. that day, is suspected to be caused by an oversized vehicle travelling along Highway 3 just north of Hosmer before the four lanes and making contact with a Telus line which crosses the highway at that point.

“The damage, which included six poles being dragged from their mounting holes and snapped fire optic cable, was extensive. Trees had been sliced in half after the broken cable reached its maximum tension and snapped,” reported S/Sgt. Svend Nielsen, Elk Valley RCMP Detachment commander.

Telus and the RCMP reached out to various area businesses and corporations to see if a large load had proceeded through that morning, but none were identified.

Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement (CVSE) advised that there were no oversize loads through the area at that time of the morning as well. There was no vehicle debris located on site to possibly identify a vehicle. The local DriveBC highway camera nearby was reviewed and did not capture an image of a vehicle the size required to do the damage located at the scene.

RCMP investigators believe that there are witnesses out there who were travelling to work or otherwise at that time and location and may have further evidence, even dash camera video, of the incident.

If anyone has information regarding this file, please contact Elk Valley RCMP at 250-425-6233 to speak with an officer or report your information anonymously thru BC Crime Stoppers at 1-888-222-TIPS(8477). The attached photos are being made available for release.  Please refer to file 2023-3683. Our investigation is ongoing.

Elk Valley RCMP photos

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