National Trucking Week is set to roll out with some good safety news

OTTAWA, — Ontario truckers participating in National Trucking Week events have some encouraging statistics to spread around to other road users.

According to a recent release of the Ontario Road Safety Annual Report (ORSAR) 2002, which looks at collisions across the province, transport trucks are the safest vehicles on the road and have some of the lowest crash rates in North America.

Between 1990 and 2002, the number of large trucks increased by 37 percent while fatalities in large truck collisions actually decreased by 13 percent, the report states. Consequently, the number of fatalities per 100,000 large trucks has declined over this period — an impressive 36 percent decline in the fatality rate.

The report also shows that of all the vehicles on the roads that had collisions in 2002, only 1 percent were tractor and semi-trailers. And tractor and semi-trailers represented 1 percent of the vehicles involved in personal injury and property damage collisions.

Furthermore, double truck combinations scored an even more impressive safety record by representing 0.3 percent of all vehicles involved in fatal collisions and 0.01 percent of vehicles involved in personal injury and property damage collisions.

Again this year, the report shows that truck drivers are far less likely than others drivers to mix drinking and driving — 1.3 percent of fatal truck collisions involved alcohol while the number is a whopping 13.7 percent for other road users.

None of this will come as a surprise to the 400,000 men and women who work in the Canadian trucking industry and will be celebrating National Trucking Week from Sept. 18 – 24, 2005.

The event is held annually to spotlight the important contributions made by the Canadians who work in the industry. It also serves as a platform for raising awareness of how to safely share the road with a truck and promoting exciting career opportunities the industry has to offer.

Events vary across the country. Some fleets are saying ‘thanks’ by treating their staff to special breakfasts, lunches or BBQs during the week, while others are presenting commemorative jackets, shirts and similar items to their employees. Still others are holding softball tournaments for the staff and their families.

Other companies have said thanks in special newspaper supplements produced by the Canadian Trucking Alliance to promote the event. This will be the sixth consecutive year the association has delivered information directly into the hands of newspaper readers that offers a fresh look at today’s modern trucking industry.

A handful of special carriers are participating in several programs within their communities, such as educational “sharing the road” presentations, awareness campaigns, and speaking tours at schools delivered by the associations’ best drivers.

Also, the CTA wants to thank Canadian truckers for their contributions to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, and other socially responsible endeavours. In the weeks since Katrina hit, Canadian carriers have been contributing manpower and vehicles to transport badly needed supplies to survivors.

Among them: Bison Transport, which has been hauling bottled water to aid distribution centres. Reimer Express Lines has announced it will match the donations of employees to the Canadian and American Red Cross; Meyers Transport, which has donated both its time (three days waiting to deliver a load of water in Louisiana) and services (hauling a load of used clothing to hurricane refugees in Dallas for Salvation Army); as well as loads of smaller carriers like Frankland Cartage, which sent a driver down with aid collected from kind Canadians.