Crash renews calls for trucking probe

As OPP investigate fiery, fatal 407 collision, safety experts demand coroner’s review

MAY WARREN A fiery Halloween evening tanker truck crash on Hwy. 407 that left two people dead has road safety advocates questioning truck safety and calling for a coroner’s review on highway deaths.

Atruck carrying diesel fuel was coming westbound between Dufferin and Keele Sts. when it collided with a car just before 5 p.m. Both vehicles mounted the concrete median and ended in the eastbound lanes, consumed in a giant fireball, the OPP said.

Police are still trying to determine the exact cause of the crash, which killed both the truck driver, a 41-year-old man from Brampton, and the driver of the other vehicle, a 49-year old Mississauga man.

The truck driver was identified by the Star’s sister paper, the Brampton Guardian, as Mahad Adan, a father of five whose wife said he had “a perfect driving record.” She told the paper Adan had been a driver for15 years,13 of them with the company 4Refuel. The company did not immediately return a request for comment.

OPP spokesperson Kerry Schmidt said in a video update posted to social media Thursday that “it does appear that the fuel tanker for some reason lost control in the right lane, went across all lanes to the left, taking a passenger vehicle along with it as it traversed these lanes.”

In a followup interview with the Star, Schmidt said police are looking into “whether or not there was a mechanical defect.”

He added the Ministry of Environment was on scene Thursday cleaning up the diesel spill in nearby ponds, and appealed to any witnesses to call the Highway 407 OPP detachment at 905-731-8180.

Brian J. Patterson, president and CEO and the Ontario Safety League, a non-profit traffic safety organization, has called for a coroner’s review into deaths on the 400 series highways in the past and said he’ll send a letter to the coroner, Ministry of Transport and OPP renewing the call in light of the crash. A review would look at similar cases and provide the government with recommendations and best practices on how to improve safety.

Patterson said Ontario’s has “some of the strongest training” for truckers.

“But at the end of the day we can always do more,” he said, adding it’s worth it “if we can save even one life.”

Given trucks’ size “they can cause so much more damage” than cars, Patterson said.

“If they’re going 20 kilometres over (the speed limit), forget the Highway Traffic Act, it’s Newton’s laws of physics.”

Patterson added there’s also things the federal government could do, such as put in place a national standard for commercial vehicle licences, given so many truckers regularly drive across provincial lines.

Tragedies such as the Humboldt bus crash that left 16 dead and 13 injured in April only reinforce that need.

“If that’s not the crucible for dramatic, national change, I don’t know what is,” he said.

Road safety advocate and law- yer Patrick Brown said he’d like to see the coroner review deaths related to trucks on the province’s highways and make safety recommendations.

“When they do crash, it usually results in pretty devastating injuries if not death,” he said, adding recommendations could include restricting their lanes or the hours trucks can drive to outside of rush hour.

But Stephen Laskowski, president of the Ontario Trucking Association, said, speaking generally, a minority of drivers who don’t comply with existing safety regulations are the problem.

“Truck safety has probably never been at its highest,” he said, adding it’s a “small number of fleets out there that are not embracing the culture of safety.”

Drivers in Ontario and Quebec already have speed limiters that keep them going at or under 105 km/h, and drivers carrying dangerous goods, such as fuel or chemicals, are even more restricted, with measures such as special handling, special trailers, special training for drivers, he said.

Asked if he would support a coroner’s review, Laskowski said the Ontario Trucking Association is already working with stakeholders such as the provincial government and the police, but there are always “opportunities to continue to improve truck safety.”

He favours making it mandatory for truckers’ hours to be tracked electronically instead of by paper, which can be easily manipulated. “Human error at times is related to fatigue,” he said. “If companies and drivers are following the required hours of service rules then fatigue will not be an issue.”