Burlington safety blitz not just about trucks

(Update)
Drivers know it can be intimidating to drive next to trucks and other commercial vehicles on our roads. And you may be surprised to learn that there’s been an increase in collisions involving those types of vehicles this year. Because of that — the Ontario Provincial Police is leading a safety blitz on commercial vehicles in the Burlington and Hamilton area today and Thursday. And there were 112 charges today alone.

That increase is huge — 40 percent more crashes this year involving a commercial vehicle. But also, the OPP tell me that 40 percent of the vehicles they inspect are not fit for our roads, so this blitz may be just what we need.

Commercial drivers take notice. Police have the hoods up. They have the scales out — and their leaving nothing to chance.

OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt: “We’ve, found a lot of problems here.”

Julien Desrochers owns a business pickup truck:: “In Burlington, the OPP were flagging any vehicle that appeared to need inspection. All in the name of safety.”

Carlos Vidinha was pulled over: “I think its a great thing, I really do. But it sucks, when you’re not ready for it.”

And it doesn’t matter if you have work to do.

Julien Desrochers: “Not making any money on the jobsite today.”

Julien Desrochers truck was one of many pulled off the road. Police found a number of infractions that resulted in a temporary suspension, and some hefty fines: “Probably about 5, 6 hundred bucks.”

There were a lot of improper tires, and bad brakes on both the trucks, and their trailers.

So one of the things that the police are looking for is a flatbed that has a loose load. As you see here there are many loose parts around, and there’s fear that if they were on the highway and they fall out it could cause a collision. So things like this chair and some of the debris on the ground will have to be pulled outside of the flatbed.

Sgt. Schmidt: “When you’re travelling down the highway at a hundred kilometers per hour and this type of equipment falls out of a vehicle and impacts another vehicle, you’re looking at, you know, potential fatal consequences.”

There were also some less than expected infractions. The Canadian Border Services Agency apprehended one person this morning. And while today’s blitz netted a lot of infractions, there is more coming tomorrow.

Thursday police will be here in the area of Dundas Street and Highway Six. And they tell me that they expect to see many more vehicles that fail. But hopefully these events will start to bring those numbers down.