Yellowknife (July 16/03) - Is there a word in Spanish for "oops"?

Trapeze artist, Janzy Jimenez, was driving a camper-trailer belonging to the Bailey Brothers Circus when he took a wrong turn Monday morning.

Jansy Jimenez, trapeze artist with the Bailey Brother's Circus, hit the ditch at the end of the Ingraham Trail Monday afternoon. - Merle Robillard/NNSL photo

Instead of finding himself flying the high ropes for his next performance in Fort Providence, he wound up swimming in the drink on the Ingraham Trail after the vehicle ran out of road and went head-long into Tibbitt Lake.

Al and Mary Morton, contractors for Reid Lake Territorial Campground, said they were awakened at 6:30 a.m. by the Spanish-speaking man who was obviously distressed but had a hard time understanding him because his English wasn't very good.

They were eventually able to figure out he worked for the circus, which was in Yellowknife over the weekend. Jimenez told them he was Peruvian by birth and was surprised to suddenly see a lake open up before him where he thought there would be road.

He figured he was on Highway 3, heading for Monday night's show in Fort Providence but missed the turn off and drove down the Ingraham Trail all the way down to where the road ends and into a narrow channel that connects Tibbitt with Terry Lake.

"We went down there to help but realized there was no hope," said Al. "We could see skid marks for 50 feet on the wet clay (road)."

Jimenez told a Yellowknifer photographer that he was driving approximately 30 km/h.

A van carrying a woman and some children was following the camper-trailer a short distance behind.

No one was injured in the accident other than a passenger in the camper-trailer, Mario Hernandez. He was slightly hurt after attempting to exit the vehicle and slipped on a rock.

The only contents of the camper-trailer was one six-foot long python. The woman in the van, Selene Ynglesie, said that there use to be seven snakes in the truck but the python ate them all.

"It could've been a truck full of lions," Morton joked. "What if they all got out?"