The officer was on routine patrol around 5:30 p.m. in the 3700 block of Cypress Bowl Rd., when a rock slide came across the roadway, striking his vehicle and a town car. The officer was taken to the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery, said Sgt. Mark McLean with West Vancouver Police. “He has suffered a very large head injury and is now recovering at home,” McLean told CBC News. McLean said the occupants of the civilian vehicle were not injured and did not require medical treatment. ✅ CLEAR – The —@DriveBC Cypress Bowl Road remained closed for several hours while the debris was cleared before reopening in both directions shortly before midnight, according to a Tweet from DriveBC. Police say there are no other threats to drivers in the area.
“Freeze and thaw cycle” behind the rockfall
Landslides are more common during the fall and spring, when temperatures drop below freezing at night but rise during the day, according to geologist Brent Ward. Ward, co-director of the Center for Natural Hazards Research at Simon Fraser University, says that when snow melts during the day, water slides into cracks in rocks. When temperatures drop at night, this water freezes and expands, which can fracture rocks and cause rock falls. “That freeze-thaw cycle is what really triggers a lot of rock falls.” Drivers shouldn’t stop next to rocks that have fallen onto the road if they encounter one, Ward says, because that could indicate more rocks are falling. “There’s a lot of work across the province to keep people safe, but we have so many miles of highway,” he said. “It’s really hard to keep all the rocks off the road, so people have to be alert while driving.”
