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Wednesday, December 10, 2014 PM40008236
Vol. 59 No. 49 Sicamous, B.C., • 1.25 (GST included) • www.eaglevalleynews.com
Truckers’ take on highway
Dangerous corridor: Speed, inexperience and impatience all suspect in collisions. By Alex Cooper Black Press
Five highway closures in a week is a lot, even by Revelstoke standards. The snow started falling three weeks ago. Before that, the roads were relatively dry and the driving was easy — at least as far as the Trans-Canada in November goes. Then the snow started and the accidents started to pile up — five major ones on the Trans-Canada Highway in the span of seven days, all the result of commercial tractortrailers drivers losing control and crashing. On Nov. 21 a semi caught a patch of slush at the side of the road and skidded out of control into an oncoming pickup west of Revelstoke. The lone occupant of the pickup was taken to hospital with minor injuries. The crash closed the highway for several hours. That night, another crash happened on the highway west of town. This time a semi lost control and jackknifed across the highway, blocking both lanes. It took more than six hours for the highway to completely re-open. Four hours after the highway re-opened, at around 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 22, another semi driver lost control, taking out a power pole before rolling over and blocking both lanes of traffic. It took most of the day to fix the power line and re-open the highway. Then there was calm until late Monday, Nov. 24, at around 8:45 p.m. when a westbound tractor-trailer jackknifed across the highway. An eastbound semi smashed into him. The driver of the eastbound vehicle — Gary Michael Rivett, 53, of Ladysmith, B.C., died at the scene. The highway reopened 15 hours later. On Thursday, Nov. 27, there was another closure when a tractor-trailer jackknifed in
Out of control: A tractor-trailer unit blocks both lanes of Highway 1 east of Canoe earlier this winter after the driver lost control of the vehicle and drove it onto the shoulder of the eastbound lane. File photo Glacier National Park. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Then the skies cleared for the weekend and peace returned to the highway. Crashes on the Trans-Canada Highway around Revelstoke in winter are as predictable as the snow. It’s not a matter of if, but when the first closure will happen and when someone will die. For many truck drivers, the stretch from the Skyline truck stop west of Revelstoke to Golden is the most treacherous in the country, with the heavy traffic, big snowfalls and winding roads built to 50-year-old standards. “That corridor between you guys and Sicamous is ridiculous on its own,” Dan Dickey told me. “Now that the snow is flying, it’s just gotten worse.” Dickey is a truck driver who runs the website BCTrucker.com. He frequently Tweets about highway issues and posts videos of bad drivers on his YouTube page. He believes the increase in speed limits that took place earlier this year is the cause of the uptick in accidents. It’s something he predicted in an interview with the CBC in October, and so far he says he’s right. “My contention was as soon as winter hits, it’s going to be a complete mess because people have no ability to control themselves,” he said. Gord Barr, who has been driving a truck from Kelowna to Golden for 18 years, agrees
the speed limits are an issue. “They should have never done that. It’s OK in the summer time, spring and fall, but not now,” he said while taking a break at the rest stop near Revelstoke. “They should have varying speed limits so they can adjust it and people drive accordingly.”
I think what our kids have to go through with graduated licensing is far more stringent than what you have to go through to get a class one. Chris Lentzi Sure Haul Transportation
When I reached Dickey last week, he was in Prince George, but a few nights earlier he had driven through Revelstoke on his way to Calgary. It was a period of calm in the midst of the chaos. He only drives this way if its absolutely necessary, he said. “That section of highway between Kamloops and the Alberta border is probably one of the most dangerous highways as far as other motorists on the road and having to interact with them,” he said.
According to Dickey, people’s driving habits have gotten worse since the speed limit increases. “People don’t see it as a maximum speed limit. They see it as a target speed limit,” he said. Because the speed limit is posted at 100 kilometres per hour, that’s the speed they’ll try to drive, even if the conditions are bad. Add in a snowy, slippery road, and you get what happened last week. “People need to slow down and be careful and be patient and realize you’re not commuting. You’re travelling,” he said. “There’s a different mindset they need to have. They need to slow down, be aware of the people around them, respect the people around them and drive accordingly.” Clint Lenzi, owner of Sure Haul Transportation, has spent his life around the highways near Revelstoke. His father owned Sure-Haul Transportation and as a kid he would help out around the shop. Twentythree years ago, at the age of 19, he got his Class One licence and has been driving trucks ever since. Lenzi said he knows about a dozen people who have lost their lives on the TransCanada. He now runs Sure-Haul, with its fleet of 16 vehicles and 17 employees. For Lenzi, the problems occurring on the See Higher training on page 2