TORONTO — The Ontario Trucking Association says the province needs to better educate car operators on sharing the road with large tractor-trailers while at the same time legislating speed governors on all trucks.

Following a number of high profile incidents on Ontario highways in the last week, the OTA offering free brochures and videos with tips on sharing the road with a truck to the public and will arrange for a member of OTA’s Road Knights Team of professional transport drivers to make a presentation to community groups.

There have been four truck rollovers on Ontario highways in the last eight days. One, last week, sent a truck driver to hospital with severe burns after his tanker carrying a load of smoldering hot tar rolled over on Hwy. 401 near Keele St.

Trucks are the safest vehicles on the roads, says OTA boss
Bradley. But that doesn’t mean the industry should rest on its laurels.

The latest incident yesterday saw a tractor-trailer hauling beverages and snacks flip on Hwy 410. No one was hurt, but the accident forced the closure of all southbound lanes, causing hours of traffic chaos.

“The trucking industry does not shy away from its responsibility to operate safely; ours is one of the few industries that shares its workplace with the public so this is a responsibility we must bear,” says OTA President David Bradley. That is why, he says, the association “is always looking at measures to improve safety further.”

Bradley cited the OTA’s effort to get speed limiters mandated on all truck operating in the province as one of those initiatives. “Besides, safety is good business,” he says.

However, the most significant contributing factor to car-truck collisions is that many motorists seem unaware of the basics of safely sharing the road with trucks, he adds.

Studies show that in most car-truck collisions it is the car driver whose behavior precipitates the collision. The Ontario Provincial Police has reported that a review of 50 recent crashes involving cars and tractor-trailers where there was a fatality or serious injury and found that car drivers are at fault in over 83 percent of the crashes involving trucks.

OPP Sergeant Cam Woolley, is quoted as saying that there is “absolutely not” enough respect given to big rig drivers and that they stop accidents from happening hundreds of times a day, and “its owed to their skill to keep things from getting any worse.”

And in some cases that effort to avoid a collision can cost the truck driver his life, as in the case of truck driver, David Virgoe, who died tragically last month when he made a pre-emptive maneuver to avoid on coming traffic as a result of an alleged speed racing incident involving two motorists.

Furthermore, Ministry of Transportation data shows that trucks represent less than 3 percent of the vehicles involved in all crashes.

“As a class, truck drivers are the safest drivers on our highways and trucks are the safest vehicles,” says Bradley. “That does not mean we can rest on our laurels or simply blame motorists; we’re prepared to do our bit, we’d like to see more of the people our drivers share the road with take more responsibility and learn how to drive around big trucks.”

For a free video, contact the OTA office at (416) 249-7401 x224 to arrange for pick up from the OTA office at 555 Dixon Road, Toronto . Brochures are available at the front desk of the OTA office. The safety tips outlined in the brochure may also be viewed online at: www.ontruck.org/info/sharing/