Communities should guide crash reduction programs: Task force

PRINCE RUPERT, B.C. — A new regional task force focused on log-truck crashes in northern B.C. suggests communities should guide their own local crash reduction initiatives.

Northern B.C. highways have been the site of
six trucker fatalities in 2005.

According to the Prince Rupert Daily News, the RoadHealth coalition — a task force to explore ways to reduce motor vehicle crashes — says community partnerships will increase safety, and reduce death and injury on roads.

RoadHealth members – Northern Health, ICBC, WorkSafeBC, B.C. Forest Safety Council, RCMP, Ministry of Transportation, and B.C. Coroner’s Service signed a memorandum of understanding at the October meeting formalizing the agreement to work together on crash reduction initiatives.

According to the newspaper, the group is developing a regional strategy that includes community grant funding, public education, information sharing, and safety campaigns.

The Workers Compensation Board in B.C. says that fatalities involving log-truck drivers have moved from the Northern Interior backroads to the province’s highways.

Northern B.C. highways have been the site of six fatalities among truckers in 2005.

Recently, the United Steelworkers union — which represents thousands of sawmill workers in the Northern Interior — has been trying to organize log truckers. It has urged the B.C. government to implement mandatory inquests after each fatality in the forest sector.

— with files from the Prince Rupert Daily News