British Columbia·VideoTemporary traffic lines painted on the Sea-to-Sky Highway are causing confusion for drivers – some of whom narrowly avoided collisions.Temporary painted lines are causing confusion for driversAlanna Kelly · CBC News · Posted: Sep 20, 2025 4:12 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoA person was caught on camera driving in the wrong lane and heading towards oncoming traffic on the Sea-to-Sky Highway. (Submitted by Will Sheu)Three people narrowly avoided being in head-on collisions while driving on the Sea-to-Sky Highway after temporary traffic lines were painted for paving.Hatched, double-yellow lines started being painted on Highway 99 between Squamish and Whistler around Aug. 26. The broken yellow lines are used during road work and temporarily replace a double solid line.Concrete barriers are often used in sections of the winding highway, perched on a mountainside above the ocean, to separate the lanes of traffic. With many blind corners and sharp curves, the new lines are creating confusion and concern among drivers. A Squamish woman was driving northbound on Highway 99 on Aug. 29 when she had to swerve out of the way to avoid being struck.”I honestly thought I was going to die,” said Grace Dwight. “It was one of the scariest experiences because it was going to be a full head-on collision.”She drove around a corner, near Alice Lake, and a pick-up truck was driving in the wrong lane toward her. “Luckily, I had passed the white van that was on my side, so I was able to get over,” she said. “My tires actually came up a bit, which was really scary because we were going pretty fast.”WATCH | Close calls on B.C.’s Sea-to-Sky Highway: ‘Scary’ near-miss collisions on Highway 99 after newly painted linesThere have been a series of near misses on B.C.’s Sea-to-Sky Highway between Lion’s Bay and Squamish. As Alanna Kelly reports, three people consider themselves lucky to have driven away unscathed.Afterwards, she contacted the police to report what happened in hopes that no one else would have the same experience.”I just kept saying: ‘Put up signs, put up anything, because it’s just going to keep happening,'” she said.Then, on Sept. 14, Will Sheu was driving southbound on Highway 99 from Whistler when a driver coming the opposite direction swerved into his lane.”My instinct was [to] swerve to the right, and luckily I didn’t have a car next to me; half a second slower [or] faster [and] the outcome would have been a lot different,” Sheu said.His dashboard camera captured the entire incident.”Definitely the scariest, near-miss I’ve had being a driver, or passenger.”Erika Swanstrom was driving northbound on Sept. 16 when she watched two vehicles pass her and drive in the wrong lane, also near Alice Lake, in an area where crossing over the centre line to pass another vehicle is prohibited. “I just was really, really shocked and I laid on my horn right away,” said Swanstrom. She feels there is no excuse for crossing over the middle line.”It’s not ideal how it is, it is marked though, so I think it’s really driver inattentiveness and just disrespect, or blatant disregard for what the rules are,” Swanstrom said. “There’s usually enough commuters heading north that that would have been a catastrophic event.”In an emailed statement, the Ministry of Transportation and Transit said safety on the Sea-to-Sky is a top priority and the temporary line markings meet ministry maintenance contract requirements.The hatched, double yellow lines were painted to help while the ministry’s maintenance contractor is actively paving this area of the Sea-to -Sky Highway.Changes made After receiving feedback from people, some changes were made to the temporary set-up. That includes digital and printed signs telling people not to pass, a reduction in the speed limit to 60 kilometres per hour, cones placed along the centre line to prevent drivers from crossing over.”Permanent pavement markings … [will be] completed by the maintenance contractor as soon as possible, and this work is scheduled to [be] completed next week, weather dependent,” the ministry said. B.C. Highway Patrol confirmed in an email that it is not aware of any collisions connected to the temporary road lines.The three drivers say that when their near-crashes occurred — between the end of August and mid-September — they did not see signs or pylons on the road.”I would really hope that there is a quicker response to safety concerns on the Sea-to-Sky,” said Dwight. “It’s unsafe for everybody.”ABOUT THE AUTHORAlanna Kelly is a CBC News journalist based in Squamish, B.C., covering the Sea-to-Sky region, including Whistler, Pemberton and the Sunshine Coast. You can email story ideas to alanna.kelly@cbc.ca.
‘Thought I was going to die’: Video captures near-miss on Sea-to-Sky Highway
