Horrific Crash On Trans Canada Highway

[caesar]

caesar........cut the nonsense of maligning bus drivers. We are talking here about a truck driver whose load killed two people and injured others. Stay on topic.

Why??? related what's the difference. Anyhow this is NOT a political issue. Got it. It is a tragic accident that should be left to the experts to assign blame. You are all over the place blaming the government.

[maplesyrup]

caesar.........stick to discussing the issues. I'll decide what is political and what is not political for myself. I suggest you do the same.

This is very political for me. It involves the trucking industry, it involved the dismantling of our railway system, and it involves the safety of all the people and vehicles that use our roads.

We already know that the second truck from the same company, also loaded down with logs, was not allowed to proceed, by the authorities.

So the trucking industry is scrambling after the fact. Too late.

/242

[playfullfellow]

pff.... you are off on some weird tangent. My problem is with the size of the trucks compared to the size of cars on our busy roads, not the truck drivers who are just trying to earn a living under quite difficult circumstances. And apparently the driver has a clean driving record.

MS, my point is that you do not make a living as a truck driver so you do not understand the very basics of what it entails to be one. As for small cars having more rights over trucks, why is that? Truckers are earning a wage by being on the roads. Trains can not move loads or cargo to various locations around the citities thus your scenario would entail people having to drive further for their goods thus creating even more traffic on the roads.

As to truckers not being union, most of them are whether they want to be or not. There are a lot of loading docks that are union and will not load a truck unless it is a card carrying driver behind the wheel.

Though you might have a somewhat legitimate concern, you have shown no viable solution to the situation at all, just ban the trucks. This is no solution at all. As with many of your ideas, you show no decent ideas in solving the problem. Show some creativity and come up with some ideas that a feasible to teh situation.

[caesar]

caesar.........stick to discussing the issues. I'll decide what is political and what is not political for myself. I suggest you do the same.

Did greg die and make you his successor. You try to tell me that I am off topic when it is you that is. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

[Slavik44]

caesar.........stick to discussing the issues. I'll decide what is political and what is not political for myself. I suggest you do the same.

Technically, MS, when caeser says this is not political what your askign for has already been done.

[maplesyrup]

There is, and has been a major growing problem on Canada's roads, and it is about time governments started addressing the issue, before there is overwhelming carnage on our public roads. Ths is just basic common sense and a serious wakeup call for all of us. hopefully, tragic as it was, this really terrible accident will spur road activists into action:

Beware of 'Zombie' Truck Loggers

• Smaller and fewer crews working harder and faster too much on top of each other, so that down-slope personnel are in danger;

• Truck drivers cutting corners on safety practices and hauling faster and-or for longer hours;

• Logging roads closed to the public so that potential incidents, problems, issues and concerns are less likely to be reported;

• Accidents being downplayed so that action is not taken against the individual by the company or against the company by the regulatory authorities, Workers’ Compensation Board or insurance organizations;

• Reduced earning capacity pushing some employees into working excess hours and even during days off, increasing the likelihood of fatigue leading to increased accidents and injuries or fatalities.

/267

[maplesyrup]

Here is a report of the incident from the local paper:

Article

[maplesyrup]

Truck traffic complaints fall on deaf ears

Maybe it is time for the federales to have a Royal Commission about the trucking industry in Canada.

[Cartman]

There does seem to be a problem here. I would like to know if federal cuts has led to increased truck traffic. A friend of mine in Manitoba said he was just waiting for a serious rail accident because they had insufficient time to monitor tracks like they used to. Scary for small towns.

[Trial-and-Error]

I'm with you, maplesyrup! Sounds like you care about people over profits. Amazing in these times of abject greed and I'm doing ok, Jack!

[maplesyrup]

T & E......welcome to mapleleafweb & thanks.

I hope you will find being here a worthwhile experience.

[maplesyrup]

-from the North Shore News

Pulled over

NEWS photo Terry Peters

PROVINCIAL commercial vehicle inspector Karen Peterson (left) checks a truck with West Vancouver police Const. Trish McLaughlin while a truck driver stands by, during a roadside vehicle inspection Thursday at the Taylor Way westbound exit of the Trans-Canada Highway. Peterson holds a licence plate removed for the truck's trailer that was towed. According to Sgt. Paul Skelton, 35 vehicles were inspected - seven were commercial - and 10 of those were taken off the road because of safety reasons. Police issued 18 tickets for vehicle defects and other Motor Vehicle Act offences. More than $3,000 in fines were issued, according to police.

Impressive. There is a nightmare out there on our roads. They need to set something similiar to aircare where all vehicles have to be inspected annually, perhaps more often for trucks, for safety deficiencies.

Canadians needs a Royal Commission into Safety on our Roads.

[KrustyKidd]

Maybe I can shed a bit of light on this subject. I own two trucks and haul continent wide. I have 70 hours every eight days to do the job. On the ninth day, I can take the first day off the log total and run those hours so that nowhere during an eight day period can I drove or work(includes waiting inspection and fuelingtime)/or over thirteen hours in one consecutive shift.

I have no union, those are for people who belong to a larger outfit such as CN or the auto workers so to think that truckers have one is a joke. I certainly wish we did as our rates would be far above the $1.20 a mile I get (not to mention everything you buy would skyrocket)

These inspections you speak of are not a joke. At least five times a day I cross an open scale where it is I would guess a seven percent chance that I will have some sort of inspection ranging from having my log book looked at and added or a ten minute brake check to a forty five minute full blown inspection. My truck always passes simply because I have it inspected once a month by the guys who's trailers I haul and my own mechanic probably one every three weeks. I do a faurly good drivers check once every twenty four hours. Your chances for getting a full inspection go down after you have gotten a full one during that year as you are given a sticker so that the DOT cops don't keep inspecting the same fit vehicles over and over again. Hence, the falicy of the numbers in which 35 vehicles get checked and 10 are in shit shape. Given the option of pulling over a fit truck or the one right behind it that looks like it is about to fall apart, the DOT will obviously go for the latter during a blitz. On a slow day they may prefer to cehck cleaner trucks in order to decrease their workload, who knows? All I know is that inspections go down in the rain and I never see a fully loaded cattle trailer with a DOT guy face up under it checking brakes. They do what they want to and when it has certain advantages. This throws all percentages out the window on a given day.

During a blitz, like when a reporter is there, they pull over vehicles that they know they have not pulled over before that year. The later in the year, the longer the truck has not had an inspection and hence, the more likely they are to find a truck that may have an ongoing problem. And, of the infractions they find, most are pretty damm minor. Possibly being simply a headlight out or a maladjusted brake. A headlight out is dangerous at nigh but for a truck that is a day cab in the city in summer, not a big deal. A mal adjusted brake to a truck that does no big hill work under heavy loads, no big deal either. However, the DOT has to go by worst case options as either truck may or may not operate under those conditions and must enforce the law to the highests standards, not the lowest. Or, some of those infractions may be sever such as having a set of wheels ready to come off. In any case, I can assure you that if they were truely serious enough to place the vehicle out of service (our of service being wating while the driver changes a light bulb, a tire guy to come out and fix bald tire) On the extreme, out of srvice could be a kingpin rady to fall off the front axle in which case, the truck scales would be chock full of wrecked trucks waiting for steering axles and trailer falling apart wating to be reloded onto a better platform. In reality, most things are maladjusted brakes which a competent driver can fix himself but is not allowed to do himself in front of the DOT.

Believe it or not, there are a lot less mechanicly unfit trucks out there than there are cars. Two reasons, 1 - trucks driven by company boys are not repaired and paid for by company boys. Company boys dont like to drive things that may kill them so they stop operating them and go on the clock while the thing gets fixed or take a day off. 2 - owner operators such as myself dont like to be in Dallas Texas getting shafted by Bush's cousin for a job that could be done for fifty bucks in my hometown. Worse, paying a roadside service in some Indian reserve in Wyoming at a wiegh scale to have a brake adjusted costing me a few hundred bucks does nothing for my bottom line. 3 - (Main one) Insurance on one of these things is well over $700 a month if you don't have AAA rating. To get that, you have to get it inspected once a month, submit yourself to random drug test (yes, it's so so so anti democratic and stinks of Orwellianism but a buck is a buck)

On the other hand, log book infractions are the more common occurence. See, from the moment I leave with the trailer I have max thirteen hours to drive to wherever. A four hour back up in Toronto, three hours at the border and then I catch rush hour in Detroit. Shoot, there's seven hours right there. Don't think for a second that I'm going to log eery second sitting at an fender bender, if I did, you would be paying three bucks for a loaf of bread if you could find a driver to go through all that for nothing. So, we all shift the logs around to make up for stuff like that while keeping it lined up with fueling times, border crossing tickets and stuff.

One last falicy about the roads. Sorry to say but we do own them - for two reasons. 1. We pay a hell of a lot more for them in fuel taxes and permits and the like but the main reason is that roads were and always have been made expressly for commerce. It has only been in the last century that they have been, with the advent of capitalism and the liesure time and corpulent luxury that it brings been able to afford people to move further and further away from where they work. Not only that, but the sucess of capitalism has also given many the enjoyment of excess income thus allowing them to go on holiday away from their slave jobs.

On the other hand, roads were essentially made by a government to move troops, ambassadors, dignataries and basicly enforce the will of the government on it's far reaching empire. The apian way was not made for Tony to get a tan on the Costa La Sol, it was so Ceasar could rule his empire. Just as the CPR was not made so people could take a scenic Snow Train, rather to ship grain to both oceans that bordered our continent. They were made for survival of the species, not the enjoyment of those who can afford to live two hours from where they work to commute. Hence, people on the highway who are not working are in reality, less in the overall right of way if you get down to it. However, in this day and age with disposable incomes, short memories of what work really is and how some did not inherit lots of money, so many dont even think of that.

To say that these trucks all got pulled over at random, is crap. They were targeted by data matched with the company under who's operating authority they were hauling under (every ifraction goes onto a profile for the company) to the last inspection date big or small.) These guys inspect so many trucks that pretty much they can smell a bad wheel seal in the dark and can tell a truck that has not been cared for from one that has by the look of the outside.

When was the last time you walkedinto work and suddenly had to submit to a full inspection of everything you had done that whole week, any fault was punishable by the loss of two days pay? When was the last time you had a drug test? When was the last time you drove home after working a twelve hour shift and stopped to do some grocery shopping, then drove home after that? When was the last time you took off to go skiing on a saturday morning all hungover? Think about it. Then complain to me and I'll laugh because you really don't have a clue of what you are talking about. If I am one of these renegade truck drivers you see behind every tree then you must be the drunk guy in the Hugo I see weaving all over the highway with frosted windows and bald tires with one headlight.

[theloniusfleabag]

Dear KK,

An excellent post and an interesting read. I have often thought that a proper public transportation system could lessen the number of private vehicles on the roads(especially in the cities) and free them up for commercial use. I spent a few years as a courier in Calgary, and I saw that often (though not always) the best drivers were the truckers, as they were the 'professionals'.

[August1991]

Dear KK,

An excellent post and an interesting read.

Ditto.

[maplesyrup]

95% Of Canadians Think Truck Drivers Should Be On Duty Only 14 Hours Or Less

Sounds like a very good place for a union - maybe the CAW's Buzz Hargrove should take it on.

[KrustyKidd]

Won't happen, independent truckers are their own worst enemy. Everybody works for a different price, home time, and under and over the table perks that to get them to unionize means getting them to agree on something. That's the love of the game is the independence it gives. For eample, I have something to do for the next few days at home and just didn't call in. I know when I do there will be work. I also remember back a couple years ago there was talk of getting a league of truckers together but it never happened, bigger companies simply slashed prices in order to maintain control. It is a cuthroat business sometimes. However, if one is prudent it can be lucrative.

For example, I now have a fuel card issued by the small guys that I haul for, gives us a volume dicount when pooled with the other owner operators. Not as much as say Bison, Shcnieder or whomever but something. Also, I give a dam as my trucks are my life, I take care of them and only hire people whom I know. One being paid for and the other almost I can ride out any type of driver or load shortage better then the big guys with their payments of millions a month. Think I am going to let a union dictate squat to me? Uh uh.

I guess what I am getting at is that I do the best I can without killing myself or others, I enjoy the flexibility and good income as well as the ability to get biger if desired. The tax breaks alone are phenominal as I claim $44 a day for meals and the gst on top of that. I like to travel and when accompanied by a friend find the down time while waiting for log books to catch up and such are quite enjoyable whe in a southern exotic local like Reno or whatever, The hotels are tax deductable as well.

There are lots of others like me, just as there are lots not like me. To lump us all into the same problematic group is a joke, just as one can lump all groups into a stereotypical consensus. Attitudes that portray us all as pill popping phsycopaths running five log books are a complete falicy and show the ignorence of the general public as they close their minds to the realities of the world in general.

A union may work for individuals who wish to be contsrained by the system they allow themselves to be a part of but half of the drivers are like me I think. Enjoying the freedom and opportunity of being independent. I answer to nobody except the laws of the land, just as we all do. I can leave work tommorow and head up to the body shop and have a new decal put on and haul for another crew, or ... take a week off to do whatever. Don't even have to ask. I don't need a union to give my employer rights just as I don't need rights as I have them now. My own ability to stop hauling somebody elses freight. Of course, it would be nice if we all got together and went on strike and watched the rates go up as shippers scambled to find a power unit to haul stuff but as I said, we dont agree on the time of day, hence we are our own worst enemy.

[maplesyrup]

Truck driver sentenced

December, 08 - 4:48 PM

WEST VANCOUVER (CKNW/AM980) -- A truck driver has been prohibited from driving for a year and fined $5-thousand dollars after a spectacular crash in West Vancouver.

Parmjit Sahota of Surrey has also been placed on three years probation.

Sahota was charged with dangerous driving after his dump truck careened down 21st Street in West Vancouver narrowly missing motorists and pedestrians.

Authorities say the truck was overloaded and it's breaks were faulty.

A lot of BCers will remember this accident.

[Tawasakm]

A lot of BCers will remember this accident.

That may be so can you please place the incident in context for since you have done the research. How many fatalities over the last ten years are attributable to truck drivers? For contrast how many are attributable to other drivers? Then please give something to contrast those numbers with - deaths by electrocution or something. A truck crash may be spectacular and memorable but I am curious to know how it stacks up next to everything else.

In terms of non-fatal accidents what are the comparisons on that? If you don't actually have those figures (I may be assuming alot here) I'm not going to ask you to dig them all up for me.