Taking the wild out of the west

RICHMOND, B.C. — In the British Columbia trucking business, between 2003 and 2007, there were:

63 fatalities; 281 serious injuries; 8,390 time-loss claims; 46,000 lost workdays; and $170.6 million in claim costs.

Those numbers are too high for members of the British Columbia Trucking Association (BCTA) and WorkSafe BC.

So, the groups just finished creating the BC Trucking Safety Council (BCTSC), designed to strengthen the industry by investigating incidents, figuring out why they happened, and what can be done to prevent them.

The council’s goal is to explore ways to reduce crashes and encourage safer driving.

It has hired the Ontario-based Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) to review truck accidents on B.C. highways and identify their causes.

Also, when they do get prevented, the newly formed BCTSC would like some way of recognizing the conscientious with some sort of special certificate.

This week, B.C’s Minister of Labour and Citizens’ Services, BCTA CEO Paul Landry and WorkSafeBC Vice President Worker and Employer Services Diana Miles will officiate at the official launch of BCTSC and introduce its Managing Director Bill Hubbard and his board of directors.

The guest speaker: Dan Mayhew of the Traffic Injury Research Foundation. His topic: the “Best Practices for Truck Safety” project that seeks to identify the principal causes of collisions involving heavy trucks on B.C.’s highways.