Upset residents pack a public meeting at the Beaverly Fire Rescue Hall last night

Prince George, BC – Angry and concerned Beaverly residents did not get their wish to have a mandatory brake check for commercial vehicles on Highway 16, west of Prince George closed immediately, but Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure officials are looking into the possibility of a temporary closure as they work to address the many issues raised at a two-hour public meeting last night.

Emotions ran high as approximately 90 residents from the rural community – many of them commercial drivers – gathered at the Beaverly Fire Rescue Hall to voice their concerns directly to four reps from MOTI’s District of Fort George office. The as-of-yet unpaved brake check is for eastbound traffic heading into Prince George and is located approximately 14-kilometres west of Peden Hill – it is the only eastbound check between Prince Rupert and Prince George.

In explaining the rationale for the location of the check, ministry officials went over the challenges with sites closer to Prince George, including: limited visibility, the need to re-locate utilities, and, in some cases, the need to acquire property due to limited Right of Way. Fort George District Acting Manager, Trent Folk, said traffic volumes along portions of the 4.5-kilometre stretch that encompasses all of Peden Hill – from Kimball Road to the steep grade down to Range Road – vary from 15-thousand to 40-thousand vehicles per day. He said, while it wasn’t the catalyst for the brake check, the accident that saw a chip truck lose its brakes and careen into the parking lot at Boston Pizza in 2010 "served as a business case" for the need.

The Beaverly check became operational this past winter, and, since then, residents say the site is ‘an accident waiting to happen’ – with the large trucks creating a bottleneck pulling into and out of the check. Residents told first-hand experiences of near-miss, head-on collisions as aggressive drivers in passenger vehicles pull into the westbound lane to get around the slower trucks. They say it is responsible for at least two crashes.

Beaverly Community Association President, Rhonda Girard, spoke for many in the room when she talked about the noise from the check stop making it impossible for nearby residents to get a full night’s sleep. The brake check sits a few hundred metres east of the fire hall and chief Bruce Perrin said with many of his volunteer department’s members living to the east of the check, there is a real danger they may be unable to access their equipment in the event of an emergency. Perrin said, as it stands now, it’s often unsafe for members to get into the hall for their Tuesday evening practises.

Area resident, Ray Brochu, conducted his own survey and monitored the check for a total of two-hours and 30-minutes over six days at the end of May and earlier this month. He told the crowd that of the 107 eastbound commercial vehicles he saw: 1. 24 did not stop at the check, 2. of the 83 others: 43 did not get out of their truck, 40 did a brief walk around their vehicles with some minor checks made. Brochu said, based on his research into what a brake check should entail, he doesn’t feel a single brake check was completed. Brochu said the residents’ many concerns centre on safety, noise, dust, and location – he said all the issues can be solved by moving the check’s location. Most residents in the room said they want to see the check moved further west, past the Mud River hill, to a less residential area – they also felt that hill has a greater history of accidents than Peden Hill and could be well-served by the check.

MOTI’s Regional Director, Mike Lorimer, admitted to those in attendance that there had been no consultation with area residents or industry prior to construction of the brake check and said they were trying to rectify that now. Lorimer said district officials had hoped the addition acceleration and desceleration lanes at the stop would alleviate some of the concerns, but he assured those at the meeting, "The reason we’re here is that we’re still at the point where we can make decisions about it." He said while the paving contract has been tendered, it contains provisions for the results of public consultations.

"I can’t say again how loud and clear I’ve heard from the community," said Lorimer. "This is a large number of people to turn-out to a public meeting, I ‘get’ the passion that people have about this issue, I’ve heard a consistent message." He emphasized, though, that it was his responsibility to counter-balance their safety concerns with the safety concerns of motorists on Peden Hill, where there is the potential for a major accident similar to the 1989 incident in Kamloops where a runaway truck crashed into 12 other vehicles. Five people were killed.

Lorimer told residents at last night’s meeting he will look into the rules and regulations surrounding closing the brake check temporarily until the entire issue is resolved. He said he and his team will reflect on the concerns raised at the meeting and make a decision on the brake check’s fate.