Believe it or not, Canadians are interested in truck safety: Poll

Avatar photo

OTTAWA, Ont. –A recent poll conducted by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) has found that many Canadian drivers do not believe driver training programs for passenger vehicles provide adequate education about sharing the road with large trucks. The survey, conducted in September and October, found that 62.4% of respondents did not believe training is adequate, with 20.2% of respondents stating they didn’t know whether training is adequate or not.

“Perhaps not surprisingly, a majority of the respondents (60.2%) supported requirements to test drivers of passenger cars to see if they know how to safely share the road with large trucks before obtaining a driver’s licence,” said Ward Vanlaar, vice-president of research at TIRF. When asked about safe driving practices when sharing the road with a large truck, the majority of respondents (64.2%) believed that they knew the minimum distance a driver should leave between their vehicle and a large truck. A majority (77.2%) of respondents also answered that they knew where the truck driver’s blind spots are.

“What was unexpected was that a reasonably large number of Canadians admit they actually do not know about these safe driving practices (35.8% and 22.8% respectively),” says Vanlaar. “In light of these findings, perhaps it should not be surprising that so many Canadians believe driver training for sharing the road with large trucks is inadequate.”

TIRF officials say the concern over training adequacy may be warranted since the number of fatal collisions has not changed much between 2000 and 2006, suggesting a plateau has been reached. Furthermore, the number of injury crashes involving large trucks substantially increased between 2001 and 2005 from 7,802 to 9,366.

When asked about concerns regarding large trucks, Canadian drivers are concerned with driver fatigue and long Hours-of-Service (69.7%), vehicles not meeting safety standards (67.1%), and speeding (63.8%). Vanlaar notes that while concern is warranted, government agencies and industry have taken steps to address these concerns, including new HoS regulations, and the use of speed limiters and EOBRs.

Avatar photo

Truck News is Canada's leading trucking newspaper - news and information for trucking companies, owner/operators, truck drivers and logistics professionals working in the Canadian trucking industry.


Have your say


This is a moderated forum. Comments will no longer be published unless they are accompanied by a first and last name and a verifiable email address. (Today's Trucking will not publish or share the email address.) Profane language and content deemed to be libelous, racist, or threatening in nature will not be published under any circumstances.

*