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Chilliwack man ‘lucky to be alive’ after ATV goes over cliff Robert Freeman The Progress A 63-year-old Chilliwack man is “lucky to be alive” after his ATV went over a cliff near the Tamihi campground Sunday afternoon, Chilliwack RCMP said. Reginald Hensbee was rescued by helicopter and taken to hospital with minor injuries. Police said Hensbee’s 29-year-old son Chad saw his father lose control of his ATV as it slipped on some loose shale. His father was thrown about 200 feet down a cliff before he got hung up in some trees. But then Chad crashed his own quad and fell about 20-30 feet down the same embankment. “He luckily only sustained minor cuts and bruises,” Cpl. Tammy Hollingsworth said. A Chilliwack search and rescue team was unable to reach Reginald on foot, so a helicopter was called in and guided to the location using GPS coordinates provided by his son. A search and rescue worker was dropped down from the helicopter on a rope, and Hensbee was secured to be airlifted to a safe location and a waiting ambulance. “Reginald was conscious and in good spirits upon being rescued,” Hollingsworth said. “He complained of back pain and was transported to Chilliwack General Hospital by ambulance.” She said Hensbee is now resting at home with a sore back, some cuts to his hands and knees, “but overall he felt lucky to only have such minor injuries.” “He wanted people to know that if you are quadding up near Tamihi to be very careful, especially around the shale,” she said. Hensbee felt the shale was the cause of the accident, “as there was nothing he could do once he was on it,” she said. “This man is very lucky, it could have been a lot worse,” she said. There was no indication that drugs or alcohol were a factor in the 2:15 p.m. accident. The father and son were quadding with two others in the mountain area between the campground and Cultus Lake when the accident happened. rfreeman@theprogress.com
Hilda and Cliff Walker recently hosted a day trip for a group of about 53 seniors to the U.S. as part of Chilliwack Fun Bus. On their way back into Canada, the seniors were delayed for nearly two hours. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Border delay prompts 911 call Seniors returning from U.S. casino protest bad hand dealt by border agents Robert Freeman The Progress Chilliwack seniors aboard a chartered bus returning from a four-hour daytrip to a U.S. casino last Thursday are furious about the way they were treated by Canada Customs agents. “We’re not the Taliban, we’re not smuggling drugs ... yet we were treated like dogs,” passenger Rodney J. Philippson said. The bus with about 53 seniors aboard was detained at
the Sumas crossing for nearly two hours, and tempers rose with the temperature as seniors were ordered to surrender their passports and remain on the bus, which had no air conditioning after its engines were ordered shut off. One 85-year-old lady collapsed and was taken to hospital, after a passenger called 911 and asked police to intervene. “We felt we were being held hostage,” Philippson said. Another passenger, who asked not to be named because of her job with a security company, said border agents never
came on board to explain what was going on. Passengers were asked to deposit their passports in a “plastic bag” which the tour operator would then give to a border agent for inspection inside the customs office, she said. “I put mine in the bag, much against my better judgment,” she said. The seniors were told that anyone who refused could be arrested. Tour operator Hilda Walker said seniors are unused to the new passport policy, and reluctant to surrender the document, especially since the Canadian government makes a point of telling them to “never
release your passport.” She said seniors feared what could happen, if their passports were copied, stolen or lost while out of sight in the customs office. Walker believes she has lost business because of the incident, as some passengers have already told her they wouldn’t be coming back. “I felt very betrayed,” she said, about the incident. “I travel around the world, and I’ve never been treated this way.” A spokesperson for the Canada Border Ser vices Agency said an internal investigation of the incident has been launched. Continued: DELAY/ p5
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