Dear Editor:

Reading the November issue of Truck News I found the story B.C. vows to become a TruckSafe province to be very interesting

In all of this the ones that were at this meeting were so called dignitaries from the B.C. Trucking Association, WorkSafe B.C. and the B.C. Forest Safety Council.

Other than the unfortunate people that have lost someone due to an accident, I didn’t pick up on anyone that drives for a living giving comment on the subject. I would have guessed that their input would also be valuable. Even though the article references passenger vehicles as being the source of most incidents the trucking industry is once more being targeted with more regulations.

As mentioned in the “Establishing the B.C. Fraser Canyon Truck Safety Corridor” part: funding for rumble strips may prevent a few mishaps should fatigue come into play. Roadside barricades may keep a smaller vehicle from going over an embankment but not the “Big Boys.”

This is the best one – signage. How does a sign help? There are plenty of signs out there now that give plenty of notice of changes in the roadway. Some of the placement of the signs is somewhat questionable, as most information signs are placed in curves where one’s attention is most required for the road. Changing that alone would probably reduce accidents by a few percentage points.

Enforcement on speeders is fine but define aggressive! Is it flipping the bird, shaking the fist or what? Nobody seems to know.

This is a great one – more Safety Checks…for who? Obviously for the trucking industry, like we don’t have enough inspections already. We have to have the truck done twice a year, trailers once a year, random inspections whenever a scale shack attendant feels like doing one. And we get ticketed for just about anything the attendant feels writing you up for. It seems like their only mandate is to write tickets.

Doing something positive with roads in the province of B.C. would be nice and with a little bit of thought would be even nicer.

Here are few examples of what could be done:

1. Straightening the roads out and getting rid of the speed curves will eliminate another percentage of accidents, from icey conditions to bright light blindness and encounters with animals.

2. Making passing lanes on long grades that are as long as the grade. The gurus of road building decided that the passing lanes should start and stop periodically for whatever reason. Make the passing lane all the way to the top of the hill or down, whichever it may be, and eliminate single and double solid line passing will probably eliminate evasive and head-on accidents.

3. Thirty-five years later the canyon and Golden corridors are the same hellholes they always have been. I find it amazing that they can find small fortunes to build inspection stations to capture the unruly truck driver but can’t find the money to upgrade the roads. The bucks are there so there is no excuse.

I really think that if they addressed the issues at hand, accidents and injuries would be reduced dramatically in this one sector of the trucking industry.

Dave Patraschuk

Via e-mail