From the Globe and Mail:
Side guards are designed to prevent exposed road users, such as pedestrians and cyclists, from falling under the sides of trucks and getting crushed by the back wheels. The recent death of a cyclist in Toronto has reignited the issue of whether the federal government should make them mandatory.
The family members of cyclists who have died in collisions with trucks are urging the Federal Government to take action. From Grieving families plead for truck side guards:
“The Canadian government has a responsibility to ensure the safety of its citizens. Side guards are a no-brainer, like seatbelts and airbags,” said Karen MacNeil Hartmann, whose husband, cyclist Ulrich Hartmann, was killed by a cement truck on Sept. 11, 2006.
Speaking at the Kensington Market yoga studio where Jenna Morrison taught before the young, pregnant cyclist was killed by a truck earlier this month, MacNeil Hartmann said she still searches her soul to understand the senseless death of the man she described as a “gentle teddy bear.”
In addition to protecting cyclists, side guards can also protect people in automobiles, SUVs and pickup trucks.
Take Action
Safetrucks.ca has a lot of information and ways that you can help out. They have also started a petition in support of safer trucks.
While the federal government needs to take action to make side guards mandatory throughout the country, cities, companies and other organizations can help by installing side guards on their trucks and requiring their suppliers to do the same. Montreal borough St. Laurent, has started installing side guards on their trucks.
Take Action
Safetrucks.ca has a lot of information and ways that you can help out. They have also started a petition in support of safer trucks.
While the federal government needs to take action to make side guards mandatory throughout the country, cities, companies and other organizations can help by installing side guards on their trucks and requiring their suppliers to do the same. Montreal borough St. Laurent, has started installing side guards on their trucks.
Please email Denis.lebel@parl.gc.ca and cc your Member of Parliament in support of mandatory side guards on trucks.
Also cc: olivia.chow@parl.gc.ca, Elizabeth.may@parl.gc.ca, denis.coderre@parl.gc.ca, James.Moore@parl.gc.ca, John.Weston@parl.gc.ca, Fin.Donnelly@parl.gc.ca, Libby.Davies@parl.gc.ca, Joyce.Murray@parl.gc.ca, Hedy.Fry@parl.gc.ca
Here is the BCCC's letter:
January 10, 2012
The Honourable Denis Lebel
Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities
330 Sparks Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0N5
Dear Minister Lebel:
Re: Truck Side Guard Legislation
The British Columbia Cycling Coalition strives to encourage all
levels of government to make cycling a safe and enjoyable means of
transportation for everyone.
On May 9, 2007, Ms. Olivia Chow MP introduced a petition in the
Commons asking for legislation that trucks and trailers in Canada have underrun
protection similar to the European ECE Regulation No. 73. The petition was
initiated by the Toronto Cycling Committee after a number of cycling deaths
involving trucks. Further support was found in a recommendation by the 1998
analysis of deaths among Toronto’s cyclists by the Regional Coroner for
Toronto. Soon after she introduced the petition, two cyclists were killed in
Portland, OR, as a result of collisions with trucks. One accident was due to a
cyclist being in the blind spot of a truck.
The Regional Coroner for Toronto concluded that trucks and other heavy
vehicles were involved in 37% of accidents leading to the deaths of cyclists in
that city. The British Columbia Coroner’s study of bicycling deaths in BC over
the period 1986 to 1995 showed that in 34% of the cases a cyclist died as a
result of a collision with a truck or other heavy vehicle. This latter analysis
also shows that bicycle helmets offer only limited protection in accidents with
trucks, especially when the cyclist is pulled under the wheels of the truck or
the trailer.
At the time, the
Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition, one of our member organizations, wrote a
letter to the then Minister of Transportation asking him to introduce
legislation requiring that large motor vehicles like trucks and trailers have
sideguards in order to protect cyclists and pedestrians from serious injury or
death in the event of a collision.
As cities around Canada are actively encouraging the use of
bicycles, we will see a continuous increase in the number of bicycles on the
road, not only in the cities, but also on provincial roads. We think it
therefore mandatory that the government should move on this issue with laws and
rules that will make traffic safer. In particular, underrun protection and
blind spot mirrors are relatively cheap and effective measures to increase the
safety around trucks and other heavy vehicles. They can prevent fatalities and
serious injuries in case of accidents.
In Europe, open side underrun protection has been mandatory since
1995. There is, however, a movement to take an additional step and make closed
side underrun protection mandatory. Closed protection is safer in that victims
cannot be caught in the protection itself and has two added benefits: better
fuel efficiency, and less spray when it rains. It is important to note that
(side) underrun protection is to the benefit of cyclists, pedestrians,
motorcyclists, and car drivers. Making it mandatory would increase traffic
safety for all road users and would also reduce
health care and insurance costs
In addition to underrun protection, blind spot mirrors are another
important device for increasing the safety around trucks. The better the driver
can see what is going on around the vehicle, the better he or she can
anticipate the admittedly sometimes less than admirable behaviour of other
traffic participants.
Accidents involving trucks have a high human toll. These accidents
are more likely to result in fatalities and serious injuries and vulnerable
road users like bicyclists and pedestrians are often the victims. But let us
also not forget the trauma these accidents can cause to the truck drivers when
the circumstances of the accident show that nothing done on their part could
have prevented the deadly outcome.
MP Olivia Chow has now renewed her efforts to encourage the
Government of Canada to introduce legislation to make sideguard protection on
trucks mandatory. Since 2007, we
know that at least 2 cyclists have died in Metro Vancouver from crashes involving
trucks and recently cyclists in Toronto and Victoria where run over and killed
by trucks.
The British Columbia Cycling Coalition therefore urges you to
initiate and support legislation on this issue that will make Canada’s streets
and highways safer for all road users, especially the most vulnerable.
Sincerely,
Richard Campbell,
President, British Columbia Cycling Coalition
president@bccc.bc.ca
cc: Olivia
Chow, NDP Transportation Critic
Elizabeth
May, Leader, Green Party of Canada
Hon.
Denis Coderre, Liberal Party
Transportation Critic
Hon. James Moore - MP Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam
John Weston - MP West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country
Fin Donnelly, MP New Westminster—Coquitlam
Libby Davies, MP Vancouver East
Joyce Murray, MP Vancouver Quadra
Hon. Hedy Fry, MP Vancouver Centre
John Weston - MP West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country
Fin Donnelly, MP New Westminster—Coquitlam
Libby Davies, MP Vancouver East
Joyce Murray, MP Vancouver Quadra
Hon. Hedy Fry, MP Vancouver Centre
