OTTAWA — Canadian Trucking Alliance chief David Bradley shot back at a national news story that grossly overstated the safety risk of Canadian hazmat trucks on the road.

As todaystrucking.com’s Right Turn Blog first pointed out at the time Canadian Press writer Steve Rennie’s article was published, the story appeared to widely sensationalize and exaggerate the threat of impaired or fatigued hazmat truckers.

In the lede sentence, Rennie wrote: "Truckers hauling explosive or flammable loads have killed and badly injured people after getting drunk or stoned behind the wheel, an analysis by The Canadian Press has found."

… "thousands of people who transport dangerous cargo put themselves – and others – at even greater risk by driving while impaired and not taking enough care on Canada’s roads and rails."

Farther down, however, the article specifies just how many "drunk, stoned" or "impaired" drivers were listed in the Dangerous Goods Accident Information System over a 21 year period:

"Impaired drivers caused 21 accidents and another 83 happened because drivers fell asleep at the wheel."

Such events represent less than 1 percent of road accidents.

The CTA also caught wind of the story and followed up with its own analysis of the data which discredits much of the report.

In a letter to CP, Bradley pointed out that there were in fact 15,759 accidents recorded over the 21 years, rather than the 20,000 infered by Rennie.

Furthermore, Bradley points out that about 15 percent of the accidents involved more than one commodity and all 15,000-plus accidents include all four transport modes — road, rail, air and marine — not just trucking.

The total number of road accidents totaled 9,037. Rail recorded 5,039, despite tens of thousands less units in operation.

As well, the most significant instigating factor in road accidents – -improper loading, unloading and handling (14.6%) – many times is the fault of consignors and consignees, which don’t involve the carrier and driver.