MONTREAL — Quebec carriers say they’re suffering collateral damage from the collapse of the Concorde bridge in Laval in 2006 and want to sue the government.

After the tragic event that killed five people and injured six others, load restrictions were applied to 135 bridges and structures across la belle province. To reach their customers, those carriers that frequently used the bridges had to deal with delays and detours that cost them, sometimes, several thousand dollars.

Facing those lost revenues, fleet members are now asking the Quebec Trucking Association to examine whether suing the Quebec Transport Ministry (MTQ) is a viable option.

Most carriers in the province have been affected at some level by the load restrictions. A handful of heavy-haulers even claim they’ve been paralyzed because no alternate roads are available to them on certain hauls.

“Several members got penalized by the load restrictions. Some even faced a complete interruption of their operations during several days,” says Marc Cadieux, president and GM of the QTA.

The QTA cannot give an exact total of lost revenues among its members. However, Julie Casaubon, co-ordinator of compliance and regulation at QTA, says that many who use special permits faced severe operational and financial impacts. “About every carrier owns a quad-axle trailer that includes a self-steering axle; that is one of the configurations forbidden on the restricted structures,” she said.

Truck bans on over 100 Quebec bridges have
cost truckers thousands, carriers claim

Facing pressure from its members, QTA decided to seek legal advice in order to see if truckers could sue the MTQ.

For the litigation to succeed, the trucking association’s lawyers say that complainants must prove MTQ’s negligence in the maintenance and inspection of the bridges before the load restrictions. And according to QTA, there’s smoke to that fire.

“This is exactly what the Johnson Commission’s report confirmed,” says Marc Cadieux. “The report says that even the Minister’s maintenance guidelines have not been respected and recognize that defaults were detected twice, in 1995 and 2004. Twice it is admitted that, with all the information available, the Minister did not detect an advanced state of deterioration.”

Last week, Transport Minister Julie Boulet herself admitted that it was a mistake for the previous Liberal government in the 1990s to download bridge maintenance responsibilities to municipal authorities (for more on this see Related Stories link below).

The MTQ, though, could be protected by several immunity provisions in Quebec legislation. Also, according to another legal point, the government could argue that its decision not to inspect the bridges was political and not operational, which would exonerate the Minister from any responsibility. The legal advice obtained by the QTA suggests it could be possible instead to claim that the MTQ made some operational mistakes that prevented the Minister from acting with due care.

In a nutshell, the legal advice states that the success of a court challenge would be proportional to the quality of evidence presented — and according to lawyers, compiling that kind of documentation could be exhaustive.

Since the association itself has not suffered any damage, the QTA cannot go ahead with the proceedings. It’s up to individual carriers to decide whether or not to take the case to court. “We told the carriers that our legal advisers can meet them and explain their rights and legal remedies,” says Cadieux.

Since alleged damages vary from one carrier to another, a judge would need to know all the exact details of who lost what before hearing the case.

“At this point, it’s up to the carriers to make a decision considering the losses they had, the ones they are having right now, and the damages they will have to face in the future,” says Marc Cadieux.

Minister Boulet recently told our sister publication Transport Routier that 80 out of 135 structures inspected must be repaired and restrictions have been removed for 46 of those structures. At the end of January, a total of 123 bridges had been inspected; 22 will be replaced; and three are completely closed to traffic. Several are still under load restrictions.

Boulet added that the she’s not considering revising the Quebec trucking network nor truck weights allowed in the province.