ENFORCING RULES OF THE ROAD
Truckers at centre of safety debate
It took years for Ontario to implement mandatory driver training in an attempt to prevent deadly bigrig crashes, and just days for people to start cheating the new system.
Following a series of catastrophic tractor-trailer crashes across Ontario and Essex County, a safety watchdog group is calling for a coroner’s review to investigate ways to stop the carnage.
One issue the Ontario Safety League wants addressed in its proposed review is “rogue” drivers and schools using loopholes and workarounds to dodge new rules. On July 1, Ontario became the only province to have mandatory entrylevel training for truckers.
“The loopholes that were exploited after it was announced were surprising to me, and I worked on the legislation,” said Brian Patterson, president and CEO of the Ontario Safety League.
“One that I thought was startling was that people are actually flying into other provinces to do their test, alleging to have an address there in the hope that they can convert their licence at some other point. A lot of people that wanted and worked hard for that change are disappointed.”
Trucking safety became the focus of provincewide scrutiny Tuesday after three people were killed in an explosive 14-vehicle pileup on Highway 400 about an hour north of Toronto.
A tractor-trailer slammed into the back of another large truck at the end of a long line of traffic, causing a chain reaction. Two fully loaded tanker trucks, three other commercial vehicles and multiple cars were involved in the crash, which sparked a serious of explosions that sent fireballs into the night sky.
Essex County has also seen its share of truck-related tragedies this year. Amherstburg’s Lacie Brundritt, 42, and her 14-year-old son Kyle were killed July 30 when a tractor-trailer slammed into the back of their Chevy Sierra pickup truck. Trucker Manjit Parmar, 52, of Brampton, has been charged with two counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death and three counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm.
Nicole Vetor, 19, died Feb. 7 when a westbound tractor-trailer slammed into her SUV while she was stopped in heavy traffic on the Herb Gray Parkway. Truck driver Dinesh Kumar, 30, of Mississauga, has been charged with careless driving.
Around 6 a.m. Friday morning, seven people were hurt — some with life-threatening injuries — after two passenger vehicles and a tractor-trailer collided on County Road 18 in Kingsville. Essex County OPP haven’t given any indication of what caused the crash.
There was also another transport rollover Friday morning on a Highway 427 off-ramp in Toronto.
Late last month before the deadly Highway 400 crash, provincial police said they responded to more than 5,000 transport truck crashes this year. They said 67 lives were lost in 56 of the collisions.
Patterson said those numbers call out for a review.
“Maybe an independent set of eyes that have the integrity of the coroner’s office is what’s going to help bust open this logjam,” he said. “Because frankly, a lot of people are working very hard on road safety and we just don’t seem to be getting there.”
While there are many reputable drivers and companies who follow the regulations, said Patterson, people trying to bend or break the rules remains a persistent problem. He said the new regulations took five years of work.
“I don’t think it was out of the box five minutes and exemptions were being discussed to try to skirt what is a preliminary, early attempt at change,” said Patterson. “By July 5, there were already people trying to abuse the process.”
He said individuals are going to Montreal to write tests because the same level of training isn’t required. Some private career colleges are trying to impose their own standards, he said, coming up with “cockamamie” plans to give “undetermined advanced standing” to some drivers so they can avoid full training.
Marco Beghetto, spokesman for the Ontario Trucking Association, said the mandatory training system is “not a panacea” but it’s a good step toward making roads safer.
Before July 1, he said, Ontario drivers were not required to take any training to get a licence. They just had to pass a test.
“Unfortunately, there was sort of an underbelly of the industry that would teach drivers for a nominal rate just to learn how to pass the test,” said Beghetto “That is no longer the case. Every single applicant who wants to get his licence will now have to get training, a minimum required number of hours behind the wheel and in class and a prescribed set of standards from an accredited school.”
He also said a coroner’s review is unnecessary because they already know what the problem is: distracted and inattentive driving.
“The data we have now is pretty good, and what it shows us is where the problem lies is in driver behaviour,” said Beghetto. “I say, let’s tackle that and move forward.”
Patterson said the review that the safety league wants would cover distracted driving, along with other issues, including initial training, retraining after bad behaviour, adequate enforcement and road design.
Bob Nichols, spokesman for the Ministry of Transportation, said the province would “provide its support in any way necessary” to a coroner’s review. But the ministry had little to say Friday about concerns over loopholes in new regulations, other than repeating that entry-level training is now mandatory.
“The ministry’s licensing system will prevent an applicant from attempting their Class A road test without meeting these requirements,” Nichols wrote in an email.
But MPP Taras Natyshak (NDP— Essex) said the province still needs to improve enforcement against schools and drivers skirting those rules. “Enforcement is the key and I’m not so sure we’re doing a good enough job in terms of the number of enforcement officers that are out there and the frequency of proactive checks,” he said.
Patterson said it is frustrating some trainers have not changed their ways despite the efforts to improve safety.
“The rogue schools that we had in the past continue to do the same thing today,” he said.
“I guess the maxim is rogue training schools can find rogue employers for their graduates and the problem in a lot of cases is the cost we see on the roadway.”
The loopholes that were exploited after it was announced were surprising to me, and I worked on the legislation.