Injured trucker’s family calls for mandatory fire protection

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WINDSOR, Ont. — The family of a badly burned trucker is calling for mandatory fire-resistant clothing for drivers that haul explosive or flammable goods.

Windsor trucker Mark Thibert sustained third degree burns to 90% of his body when his transport truck sideswiped a parked tractor-trailer and burst into flames in Michigan last week.

Thibert’s aunt, Anne Marie Banka, told The Windsor Star that while the fire suits worn by stock car racers would be ideal, even the kinds of fire resistant work clothing and boots worn by oil industry workers to protect against flash fires would be an improvement.

Thibert was hauling a load of Crown Royal whisky last Wednesday when he collided with an unoccupied truck parked on the shoulder of I-94 about 25 kilometres west of Detroit.

The Star reported that Thibert leaped from his flaming truck like a human torch before being wrestled to the ground in the grassy median and extinguished by a passing motorist.

The load of whisky ignited, quickly building into an inferno that burned for about 50 metres along the highway.

Thibert is listed in critical but stable condition at the burn unit of the University of Michigan Medical Centre in Ann Arbor, where he is being kept sedated. His aunt said he faces months of skin grafts and therapy.

There are no rules in Canada covering the use of fire-resistant clothing for drivers hauling flammable or explosive materials, according to the report.

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