This truck knocked a fuel pump off the foundation of a Qualicum Beach Chevron service station on the Island Hwy. just north of the Little Qualicum River bridge. The unlicensed driver was arrested away from the scene and issued several tickets. It's believed the driver was headed south on the highway at the time. (Dashwood Volunteer Fire Dept)

By Ian Holmes

Dangerous driving

Unlicenced driver crashes into Qualicum Beach gas station pump

Nov 4, 2019 | 3:18 AM

QUALICUM BEACH — A Qualicum Beach gas station was damaged after a truck loaded with firewood crashed into a fuel pump just minutes after the business closed for the night.

Members of the Dashwood Volunteer Fire Dept. said the incident happened on Sunday, Nov. 3 around 9:40 p.m.

Dept. captain Jeremy Morton said the truck veered off the West Island Hwy. at Texada Rd. north of the Little Qualicum River bridge for unexplained reasons and plowed into the Chevron service station pump.

“There was no indication of fire at the time but one of the pumps had been sheered off its base by the vehicle,” Morton said.

The driver and lone occupant of the badly damaged truck wasn’t on scene when emergency responders arrived, Morton said.

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RCMP confirmed to NanaimoNewsNOW a 27-year-old man was arrested shortly after the incident with help of a Police Service Dog.

Morton said the gas station’s owner was on-scene and immediately applied the pumps’ emergency shut-off valves.

“If he hadn’t have done that there’s the potential for a lot more fuel to have been spilled, which of course has the chance of ignition or getting into the drainage ditches in the area.”

Morton said the incident caused a small fuel leak.

A staff member of the Chevron service station told NanaimoNewsNOW the owner had just closed up shop a few minutes prior to the incident and was doing paperwork when the truck barreled into the gas pump.

It’s not known if the driver was injured.

He was issued numerous tickets, including driving without due care, not having a driver’s license and failing to remain at the scene of an accident.

Mounties said no further information would be released.

ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes