Changes to act could ease waits after Malahat crashes

Changes to the Motor Vehicle Act could reduce traffic delays after crashes on highways such as the Malahat Drive, according to a resolution to the upcoming Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Vancouver.

The changes could help reduce lengthy highway closures on the Malahat or Sooke Road where there are no detour routes, says Chris Foord, vice-chairman of the Capital Region Traffic Safety Commission.

Currently, if damage is estimated to be more than $1,000, police are required to conduct a “time-consuming” accident investigation and fill out what’s known as an MV6020 form, says a resolution put forward by the District of North Vancouver and North Vancouver City. In addition, the Motor Vehicle Act says only police can fill out the form and only police are authorized to allow damaged or stalled vehicles blocking a provincial highway to be removed.

The resolution proposes amending the Motor Vehicle Act to increase the accident damage limit to $10,000, to allow police to attend minor accidents without having to complete an MV6020 investigation and to facilitate timely removal of vehicles with minor damage; and to move toward amending the Motor Vehicle Act to extend authority to fire-rescue services to complete MV6020 investigations for minor accidents.

The resolution also calls on the province to give authority to maintenance contractors to authorize removal of stalled vehicles or vehicles in a minor crash that are blocking a highway.

“A thousand dollars seems extremely low for something that could cause a road to be closed for a longer period than maybe $1,000 would warrant,” Foord said.

“On some new cars, $1,000 could be a broken headlight.”

Foord said he would favour piloting any changes before they were made, similar to the suggestion by the traffic safety commission for a pilot installation of photo radar cameras on the Malahat Drive. “I’m all in favour of revisiting how we do things. I would like to see us extend the revisiting to not only accident-clearing, but to extend how we do things to the way we mark our roads and our corners and our hazards at night. I think we could do a much better job,” he said.

Foord said he hopes the UBCM supports the accident-clearing initiative. “I think motorists in the province would appreciate faster reopening of highways where there’s been no major bodily injury or death involved.

“Where it’s just crumpled metal, I think most people would like to see the road opened a little faster,” he said.