Karen Searle, 65, was on her way from Penticton to Vancouver Monday on Highway 3, west of Keremeos, when rocks broke loose from the hillside above and came crashing down on to the road.

“There were a couple of rocks on the road that I was focused on avoiding and more started rolling down,” she said, Tuesday, when she returned to Keremeos to get belongings from her car. “Then I looked up and saw the major slide coming down with huge boulders.”

The next thing she recalls is the airbag deploying in her Hyundai Sonata and the air being filled with smoke, steam and dust, so much that she couldn’t see anything.

She grabbed her purse and cell phone and had to use her foot to open the door because it was stuck.

Once she got out she went to the side of the road to see what went on. The car ahead of her stopped and some young guys came back and asked if she was alright. That section of the road is a dead zone, so she was also fortunate an RCMP officer coming up from Princeton arrived on the scene.

She further described everyone who stopped to help as wonderful.

“It was a very efficient group of people,” she said.

Searle further recalls a fabulous fireworks show from the rockslide taking out power poles at the location.

As for the aftermath, the Penticton woman said she went to the hospital in Princeton, but was back home in Penticton by 8 p.m.

Other than bruising on her wrists, she claimed she was in good shape the next morning.

“I woke up this morning just fine,” she said. “Maybe it hasn’t hit me yet. It all turned out perfectly. My husband is happy not to be a widower today.”

Searle’s vehicle was badly damaged in the front, while the other car, a red Honda Civic, appeared to have been hit in the rear.

Thanks to Castanet