Removing Trucks from 5A Misguided

(Aired on May 6, 2010)

When I first saw the story in Kamloops This Week, I looked at my calendar to make sure it wasn't April Fools. It wasn't.

MLA Kevin Krueger, reacting to an accident on Highway 5A, the old Merritt Highway, suggested it was time to ban large trucks from the highway. He is quoted as saying that the truckers have outgrown the old route. Typical that the government would react this way when the problem is really the government itself. Trucks speed down that road, they take the sharp turns too quickly. It can indeed be a dangerous route. But the answer is not to ban truckers from the road. The road has handled big trucks for a lot of years. My guess is truck traffic isn't nearly as heavy as before the Coke was built in the 80's. The answer, Mr. Krueger, is to put some government money into policing the situation.

I agree with Paul Landry of the Trucking Association that the problem is a few bad truckers. Years ago, truckers by and large were a pretty good group of drivers. Nowadays it just isn't the case. But if the government put some money into highway patrols that could monitor the truck traffic, could money the safety of the vehicles, could make sure drivers had proper licences and were properly trained, we would go a long way towards solving the problem.

What's the sense of taking stupid, dangerous drivers and moving them from one highway to another. Moving them to the Coquihalla does nothing to solve the problem. They're just as dangerous, and if you look at the stats, there are certainly plenty of truck accidents on the Coke. So why not make the effort to solve the real problem, which is the truckers and not the road? The road is narrow, it has sharp turns, but if you drive it properly, it's safe.

I don't want to suggest that our government is ignorant of reality, but the problem would be better solved in putting some money toward education, training and enforcement, as opposed to the cheaper solution of simply planting a "no fly" zone on a highway.