Page 26 - Newcom

COVER STORY
Dangerous roads
Continued from page 1
and which roads are most in need of upgrades to make a truck driver’s job safer.
British Columbia
B.C. could very well fill a list of most dangerous highways in Canada, given the number of mountain passes, steep grades, and sheer sense of peril if you were to go off the highway.
Global News even did a list of B.C.’s 12 deadliest highways, with the stretch on Hwy 1 from Revelstoke to Golden topping the list with 38 fatal collisions between 2004 and 2013.
Shelley McGuinness, commu- nications specialist with the B.C. Trucking Association (BCTA), said the Trans-Canada through the prov- ince poses its challenges because of geography, including steep grades and sharp turns.
“Highway 1 has been on BCTA’s advocacy list for years for improve- ments, and we are fortunate that B.C. governments have agreed and committed to four-laning between Kamloops and the Alberta border,” she said. “In sections, it is still a two-lane highway with inadequate shoulder room.”
McGuinness even pointed out that the provincial government’s
website states: “There are more kilometers of two-lane highway between Kamloops and Alberta than there are between the B.C.- Alberta border and Ontario.”
The BCTA has also advocated for better winter highway main- tenance standards, with more stringent conditions now in place. Service Area 11 (East Kootenay)
is the first to be subject to these new standards, and two areas on Vancouver Island followed.
McGuinness said there are still two portions of Hwy 1 that need attention – the Brunette Ave. interchange with Hwy 1 in New Westminster and Coquitlam, which is one of the Top 10 crash intersec- tions in the Lower Mainland, and Langley to Hope.
“Because of extreme conges- tion and the crash risk this rep- resents, we would like to see Hwy 1 from 216th Street in Langley six-laned all the way to Hope,” said McGuinness. “This is a four- lane, divided highway, but traffic can crawl between Langley and Chilliwack and further east in both directions.”
According to the Insurance Corporation of B.C. (ICBC), col- lisions involving heavy vehicles average 13,000 per year (a five-year average from 2012-16). From those accidents, 58 people on average are killed.
The brunt of those incidents (9,000 on average) occurs in the Lower Mainland.
Alberta
Hwy 63 north of Edmonton has the distinction of being nicknamed the “Highway of Death.”
Recent twinning of the highway will likely lower the number of col- lisions that occur on the section of road that stretches from Edmonton up to Fort McMurray. But that doesn’t take away from its notori- ous past.
In 2017, the Wildrose Party (which has since merged with the prov- ince’s PC party to form the United Conservative Party) created an interactive map of Alberta’s deadli- est highways. Hwy 44 from west of Edmonton up to Westlock topped the list of deadliest stretches of highway in the province with 22 fatal collisions between 2005-14.
Second on the list was Hwy 3 (Crowsnest Highway) between Lethbridge and Fort MacLeod with 20 fatalities during that same time frame.
Chris Nash, president of
the Alberta Motor Transport Association, pointed to Hwy 40 between Grande Prairie and Hinton as high up on the list of roads that need upgrading.
“This two-lane highway is not built for commercial traffic due the
lack of road shoulders and a lack
of places available for commercial vehicles to pull over to rest, or even to pull over at all,” said Nash. “This is most prevalent with the commercial traffic from Grande Prairie with the oilfield and lumber industry on the northern portion of that road.”
Saskatchewan
The fatal collision between the Humboldt Broncos bus and trac- tor-trailer this past April made international news and highlighted the dangers of driving in certain areas of Saskatchewan.
The National Post did an article shortly after the collision, and its title said it all – “The most dan- gerous road in Canada: Why it’s so deadly to drive in Saskatchewan.”
The story claims that since 2008 Saskatchewan has suffered double the national average of fatality rates every year from collisions.
Susan Ewart, executive direc-
tor of the Saskatchewan Trucking Association (STA), said the prov- ince’s northern roads are in desper- ate need of attention.
“Trucks are a lifeline for many of those communities and make the goods (more) affordable, as the only other option is float planes which carry much less cargo,” Ewart said. “We have come a long way with northern infrastructure, but there is still a very long way to go.”
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26 TruckWest•October2018