Blazing a Trail for Resource Road Safety

Thursday, October 30, 2008 03:18 PM

Prince George, B.C.- WorkSafe BC is launching two projects aimed at reducing accidents and injuries on resource roads.

One project will be in the Prince George Forest District, the other will be in the Chetwynd area.

The 6 month projects are supposed to ensure that companies which are using the resource roads are in fact passing along the safety plans to the people who are behind the wheel. That means no matter if it’s an oil and gas project, mining or forestry contract, the safety rules are being applied and enforced.

The projects will also provide an opportunity to test some new technology like gps or electronic stability control to see if they might assist in avoiding crashes.

“Let’s not forget that in some cases, these resource roads were initially created 50 or 60 years ago and were made to handle one sector, forestry” says Don Dahr, the Compliance Manager of WorkSafe B.C.. Now the roads are being used by all manner of industry as well as the public. Dahr says the issue is complicated “The public will say get the logging trucks off the roads and we’ll be safe, and the truckers say get the public off the roads and we’ll be safe, but we all have to work together. It’s a multi pronged approach and there are so many different users.”

In each area there will be a resource Road Safety Management group made up of road owners, licensees, and WorkSafe BC.

Each group will:

Clarify health and safety responsibilities of owners, prime contractors, employers, and workers/drivers applicable to resource road systems
Identify safety concerns/issues about road use, design, construction, and maintenance
Establish road safety groups to address management and usage
Address report recommendations from the Auditor General and Forest Safety Ombudsman
Develop systems/approaches to safely manage and coordinate road use
Demonstrate practical approaches to communicate safety information
Explore partnerships that can make resource roads safer
Examine the effectiveness of new technologies, methods, and tools that lead to the reduction of serious injuries and fatalities

Once the projects have wrapped up ( in March of 2009) recommendations will be made for changes.

“Anything that will make it safer, and have people come home from work is a positive step” says Shannon Payne, her husband Craig died in a forestry road crash near Burns Lake five years ago.

Previous Story - Next Story