'Scary situation': Dashcam captures dangerous pass on Hwy 97 in Peachland

UPDATE 11:40 p.m.

Police have made an arrest after a driver made a dangerous pass on Highway 97 through Peachland Monday.

Sgt. David Preston with the Summerland RCMP tells Castanet they received multiple reports of a vehicle being driven erratically on Highway 97 Monday morning.

"Air services was in the air and they located the vehicle and followed it into Summerland where we intercepted it," Sgt. Preston said.

In addition to the multiple calls police received from the public, they also got a call from an off-duty RCMP officer who was passed by the same vehicle near Antler's Beach. The driver of the vehicle has been charged with passing on a solid double line and their vehicle was towed.

Sgt. Preston also said the RCMP will use Cindy Battersby's dash-cam video as further evidence in their investigation. Battersby's video can be seen above.

"It's dangerous," Sgt. Preston says. "When we see this type of video it definitely helps us out, the charge could now be much more severe."

Sgt. Preston also points out this arrest was made without the offender even seeing an RCMP vehicle until they were arrested.

"We can follow up and charge people even though there aren't any cruisers around."

ORIGINAL 4:00 a.m.

A Peachland woman and her husband are thanking their lucky stars after a close call on Highway 97 earlier this week.

Dashcam video taken on Monday at 10 a.m. shows a grey SUV passing a bus and another vehicle, over a double-solid line, in Peachland.

"It's a good thing my husband was with me, because we were both sort of distracted by the vehicle parked on the south side of the road. All of a sudden this guy is passing," Cindy Battersby told Castanet.

The video shows Battersby's car moving onto the shoulder to avoid the oncoming SUV in what she described as a "scary situation."

"I just recently retired and I drove that highway every day for 31 years," Battersby says it was just luck that she and her husband didn't get into a serious accident.

"There have been serious accidents on that stretch of highway. That section of highway is where people are coming down the hill, southbound, and there's no place to pass," Battersby says.

Aside from drivers slowing down and not passing on a solid double yellow line, Battersby says she'd like to see a passing lane added to that section of the highway.

The provincial government has long been considering widening Highway 97 in Peachland, or a bypass around the community, although there is no rush on the province's part as the stretch of road is not expected to reach capacity until 2040.