The driver of a four-wheel-drive pickup truck literally went off-road in downtown Nanaimo this afternoon.

Vehicles were attempting to turn onto Church Street from Chapel Street at about 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 8, when the truck's driver decided for unknown reasons to cut onto the sidewalk before crashing over concrete bollards, street lamps and other street amenities, then speeding away on Church Street. 

One of the street lamps narrowly missed going through the windshield of a sport-utility vehicle with a man and woman seated in the vehicle that had pulled into a parking space seconds earlier. The couple, David and Gabrielle Maher, were shaken, but otherwise uninjured. 

"We'd just parked, just seconds after we parked," David said. "Somebody pulled out and we'd just backed in." 

Olivia Thomas said she was just walking into her workplace at the B.C. First Nations Justice Council and was standing on the steps of the Great National Land Building when the incident unfolded in front of her. Thomas described how his truck ran over a lamp standard and drove over a bicycle rack, construction company traffic control sawhorses and other fixtures on the sidewalk. 

"I believe the [driver] couldn't get past the crosswalk, it was too busy for him ... He was obviously very angry that he had to wait for the crosswalk to clear up, so he made his own way," Thomas said. "It was really scary. I was almost right in the path there." 

Nanaimo RCMP, Nanaimo Fire Rescue and B.C. Ambulance responded to the scene. 

The truck was found a short time later in a gravel pit near the south end of Nanaimo River Road in South Wellington, south of Nanaimo. 

"The truck was later found abandoned," said reserve Const. Gary O'Brien, Nanaimo RCMP spokesman.

O'Brien said the white 2006 Ford pickup was found laying on its side, its motor still running and its tires smoking and had crashed through barriers.

RCMP Police Dog Services responded to the scene and the dog established a track, which disappeared and the search was unsuccessful. The driver of the truck remains at large. 

"The vehicle's been seized and it's an active investigation," O'Brien said.