Drivers are advised to steer clear of a dangerous road hazard at a crossing near Millarville.
A large pit at the site of a river ford is located on Township Road 210 just off Range Road 23A, about five minutes outside of Millarville and just over 15 minutes from Okotoks.
"I do approximately three tows a day from down there," said Ken Greenan, owner of Red Rescue Towing. "What's going on is Google is actually giving people the quickest route, and that's the way it's taking them. Everyone's always trying to find the shortcut and that is the short way, so they pump in 'quickest route' and it'll take them that way every single time.
"Your Google Maps, if it tells you the quickest way, just make sure you research your route, because this can happen and it happens every day."
Greenan said he has been towing three vehicles a day from the pit every day for the last three weeks, typically with serious damage.
"It's a lot of pickup trucks," said Greenan. "A guy the other day, he had his $190,000 truck destroyed. It was a show truck, 190 grand, it's written off."
The warning comes after Diamond Valley Fire Rescue made a Facebook post about an 18-year-old driver suffering minor injuries and wrecking his vehicle at the crossing last night.
"The kid last night was only 18," said Greenan. "He was just a kid. He was lucky he didn't die. His airbags went off, he destroyed his vehicle. Infinity Lexus, destroyed it."
Greenan advises drivers to stay away from the crossing, especially for the foreseeable future.
"It's gonna be bad now till the next three weeks," he said. "And then I would recommend [caution] again in April, May, because of the floods."
The pit is located at a ford that is expected to be covered with water during the spring, and Greenan said the flooding of the ford is another danger.
"I had my truck float down the river in 2013," he said. "Brand new truck wasn't even two weeks old, and I had to rebuild the engine. I grew up here, so I knew about the flooding."
Greenan recommends that all drivers, regardless of their vehicle or familiarity with the area, avoid driving through the ford at all times.
"The tow company loves the money, but I don't like doing the work," said Greenan. "I feel guilty, you know what I mean? You can only warn people so much.
"You start coming down a gravel road, you should maybe re-evaluate where you're going."
