By: Jag Dhatt
Many people in the Greater Vancouver Regional District are shaking their heads, again. On January 10th, a truck entered the Massey Tunnel in Richmond, BC with a vehicle traveling behind the truck catching everything on her dash camera.
Just after 8pm, the complainant said she saw the top of the truck hitting the “roof of the tunnel” and there were sparks flying. Dash cam video shows the truck hitting the roof and loud scrapes and thuds could be heard.
The driver did stop the truck and then continued to drive until he or she exited the tunnel. At that time, the truck driver pulled over and spoke with a road maintenance contractor.
While there seemed to be no significant damage to the tunnel, Mounties said they are still “actively investigating” the accident. It was reported that the BC Ministry of Transportation grounded the entire 20-truck fleet of TSD Holdings until the investigation is complete.
Proper training of truck drivers falls on the company for which they work. However, that being said, the final responsibility before beginning any drive route falls upon the driver. Harry Bacchal, president of Big Rig Driving School believes more and better training would help in solving the issue of trucks hitting overpasses. In addition, when handling oversize loads, both company and driver need to have even more training to ensure safety.
Gagan Singh of the United Truckers Association believes that many truck drivers do not have the proper tools to measure the height of their loads. Singh said he will be sending a letter to the BC Ministry of Transportation, requesting more support for drivers handling oversized loads.
Still, other experts point to the lack of skilled drivers in the industry. With a shortage of skilled drivers, many companies are hiring unexperienced and/or recently licenced drivers to haul loads, some of which may be oversized.
While the BC Ministry of Transportation has increased fines for such infractions, the public is still shaking their heads, and wondering when another truck will hit an overpass.
