Family calls for better fire protection for drivers

WINDSOR — Truck drivers who haul explosive or flammable goods should have to wear fire-resistant clothing.

So says the family of a driver who was seriously injured in Michigan last week when his load of Crown Royal whisky burst into flames after a collision.

Driver Mark Thibert sustained third degree burns to 90 per cent of his body when his transport truck side-swiped a parked tractor-trailer and burst into flames.

Now his family wants to see a government mandate that would protect drivers who find themselves in a similar situation.

Anne Marie Banka, Thibert’s aunt, told the Windsor Star the family would like to see drivers forced to wear a fire suit when on a run with a flammable product.

While she said the fire suits worn by stock car racers would be ideal, even the kinds of fire resistant work clothing and boots worn by oil industry workers to protect against flash fires would be an improvement.

The collision which injured her nephew occurred on the shoulder of I-94 about 25 kilometres west of Detroit. Thibert was alight when he leaped from his flaming truck. A passing motorist pulled him to the ground in the grassy median and extinguished the flames. The load of whisky ignited, quickly building into an inferno that burned for about 50 metres along the highway.

Thibert is listed in critical but stable condition at the burn unit of the University of Michigan Medical Centre in Ann Arbor, where he is being kept sedated. His aunt said he faces months of skin grafts and therapy.

There are no rules in Canada covering the use of fire-resistant clothing for drivers hauling flammable or explosive materials.