Carriers urged to focus on safety as another truck hits overpass in B.C.

The B.C. government and trucking industry has renewed calls for carriers to focus on safety as another truck struck an overpass in the province – the 18^th such incident since Dec. 10, 2021, according to the B.C. government website.

A commercial tractor-trailer struck an overpass at 264^th Street westbound in Langley, at 7 a.m. on May 29, a B.C. Highway Patrol official told TruckNews.com.

The crash caused some damage to the truck, overpass and highway, but there were no injuries. Commercial Vehicle and Safety Enforcement along with engineers from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure attended the scene to assess the vehicle and overpass. 

The engineers deemed the overpass to be safe for vehicles. 

No over-height permit

The Highway Patrol official said the truck driver was issued violation tickets under the B.C. Motor Vehicle Act for driving without due care, as well as for failing to have an over-height permit.  

Highway 1 was closed to westbound traffic for several hours during the investigation, assessment and cleanup, and later reopened.

Commercial vehicle operators are responsible for ensuring their loads meet the terms and conditions of the permit they have been issued, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure said in a statement to TruckNews.com.

“The ministry is working with the trucking industry on new actions we can take with higher fines, steeper penalties, longer suspensions, and more driver education to stop these collisions from happening,” the statement said.

Under investigation

The ministry said the vehicle involved in the most recent collision belongs to Revolution Crane Services from Nisku, Alta., and the incident is under investigation.

B.C. Trucking Association president Dave Earle called for establishing “a culture of safety where the carrier engages the customer and has a conversation about load dimensions, transit time, and permits.”

“Create an environment where you expect your drivers to measure and report to dispatch the height of anything moved, before it moves,” Earle urged.

Larry Hall, owner of Extreme Transportation based in Kamloops, B.C., called these incidents a blemish on the face of the industry.

“Over-height is the number one problematic oversize load. Over-height will get people into trouble quicker than anything,” he said.

He noted that conditions that come with permits must be read carefully. He called them “the stuff that gives everybody else the opportunity to escape responsibility of you clobbering something.”

Hall said, “We have people who may or may not be reading their conditions, may or may not be following their routing.”

Drivers must also pay attention to the height of the trailer hauling the load. “If you have it on a different type of trailer, all of a sudden it is six inches higher,” he said.