Since when did stop signs become optional?

Coming off last year’s historically low number of Saskatchewan traffic deaths, this year will not likely do so well. The Humboldt Broncos bus disaster and several other multi-fatality crashes have brought stark attention to road deaths.

The Broncos’ bus tragedy happened at a rural intersection when a fully loaded Super-B semi, which should have been at a stop sign, wasn’t. Recently, a large semi loaded with grain collided near Kerrobert with a bus carrying pipeline workers; miraculously, no one died. Police photographs show the semi protruding past a stop sign from an intersecting highway.

On my radio show, drivers around the province increasingly report seeing huge, fully loaded semis routinely ignoring stop signs. Some truck drivers actually regard stop signs as an option, to be followed at the driver’s discretion, only if he thinks it’s necessary to stop.

Otherwise, from the notorious “rolling stop” (the definition of an oxymoron), to some drivers who actually accelerate through stop signs — when they’ve determined that no right of way traffic is coming — my evidence is only anecdotal. But it’s more frequent than ever and it’s chilling.

Witnesses report some farmers hauling grain in huge semis, blowing through grid road stop signs and even rolling through stop signs connecting major highways. Ditto for certain tanker trucks in the oilpatch, trucks hauling equipment or gravel; even last week a milk tanker was spotted coasting through a stop sign onto a highway.

At first blush, the thought is that some drivers have become complacent or that they just don’t see the signs. But it’s not that. It is more deliberate.

Drivers have tried patiently explaining to me, as if talking to a child or simpleton, that they know what they’re doing; they choose not to stop. And we just don’t get it because we do not understand the physics and human dynamics of driving big rigs.

In order for a semi to accelerate from a full stop to driving speed, it takes much more energy, time and wear on the vehicle. If the semi can coast through a stop sign at five to eight kilometres an hour, while the driver swivels his head to determine that crossing traffic is far enough away, it is easy — even safer, the earnest drivers tell me — to be able to get on the road and back to highway speed.

Oh, and you should try driving a semi on ice, they protest. Coming to a full stop at some intersections would actually result in not being able to get moving again.

Like some weird Alice in Wonderland “up is down and down is up” experience, hearing a guy explain this makes me want to yell, “The sign says Stop, you idiot — not Stop If You Want To.” Besides, there are already signs that permit the checking of traffic, pausing and then coasting through. They’re called yield signs.

Though more numerous than ever, large trucks on the road are outnumbered by passenger cars and pickup trucks and only two per cent of road crashes involve semis. However, fully loaded and weighing upwards of 60,000 kilograms, large trucks often cause extraordinary damage, which explains why in fatal crashes 14 per cent of vehicles are semis.

Saskatchewan Government Insurance statistics tell us that about 100 people die every year on provincial highways and rural roads, 15 from failure to yield or disregarding traffic control devices. We don’t know how many of these crashes involve semis at stop signs.

Mindful of the extraordinary risk posed by semi drivers who choose not to stop, maybe a strong deterrent message is to multiply the standard penalty for running a stop sign to $2,000 to $3,000 for Class 1-A drivers who pilot semis. This, plus added enforcement, might send a clear message.

Right now, it seems that common sense isn’t getting through.