Dear Editor:

As I was reading Harry Rudolfs’ article about rest area closures in Ontario (Truck News, March), I could not believe what I was reading. There goes the parking for trucks, which is woefully lacking now. And then the MTO want to give one company control over all these new plazas, including the design and layout. What are they thinking?

I’m sure there are people in the transportation industry that could advise them as to what form they should take and how they could better service the trucking industry, as well as the auto traveller.

Now, I may not be an expert in these matters, but I spent over 30 years in the emergency service, 18 of them on a rescue truck servicing the 401 in the GTA. I’m retired now, but am helping my brother out by driving a highway truck and crossing the border, twice every week.

I’ve had a A/Z licence for years. Now this seems to me to be a serious safety issue. I have extricated a lot of people from wrecked vehicles, trucks and cars alike over all those years. And driver fatigue has been a factor in a lot of them. There are many signs posted along the 400-series highways stating ‘Fatigue Kills, Take a Break’ and now they are closing all those service plazas. What’s wrong with that picture?

Recently, during a horrendous snow storm, I was fortunate to find one of the last parking spots at the eastbound Tilbury plaza, as it was extremely unsafe to drive any farther.

In the morning, there were trucks parked everywhere and every on-/off-ramp and service plaza was the same. Without these rest areas, what would the trucks do, continue to drive until they ran into something or someone?

Bruce Caves Via e-mail