More Than 200 Attend Forest Safety Meeting In Smithers

Sunday, December 11, 2005 02:02 PM

There were logging truck drivers and their wives, contractors and their wives, silviculture contractors, and mill representatives...

More than 200 people, in total, for a forest safety meeting hosted by West Fraser's Smithers operation on Friday.

Featured speaker, TruckSafe BC Project Manager Mary Anne Arcand, says, although the gathering fell one day after a fatal logging truck accident near Houston that claimed the life of 48-year-old Lloyd Edward Booth, it was not in response to the industry's 42nd fatality. Arcand says the gathering had been scheduled two weeks earlier, but she says the recent fatality was on everyone's mind.

However, she says rather than accusations, "The questions were not finger-pointing, or blaming -- it was, 'What can I do as an individual, what can we do as a community, what can we do overall as an industry' to make a difference tomorrow, Monday morning, not just six months down the road with regulatory changes."

Arcand says with a huge increase in the number of trucks on the road this season because of beetle kill, a lot of the precautions have to do with slowing down, using the radio properly and pulling off to allow loaded trucks through.

As for the contractors and mills, the TruckSafe BC spokesperson says they need to ensure the routes are maintained in a manner that suits the amount of traffic. Arcand points out maintenance schedules from five years ago will no longer be relevant.

She says she's seeing some real increases in attention and response to safety concerns. She points to an incident on one of the local road systems a week ago Friday and, says, within a couple of hours all the parties involved -- the mill, contractor, WorkSafe BC, Ministry of Forests, and RCMP -- had met, said, 'this situation is unacceptable' and by Monday morning, changes were in place.

Arcand says, "That kind of response is unprecedented."
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Posted on Sunday, December 11, 2005 02:02 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: nazko 5 on December 11 2005 5:03 PM

i will be surprised if the back roads will be any safer to drive in the near future. the trucks that are being used today are much to large for many roads in our area. the attitude of some truckers may take years to change. i have to use the blackwater road in the winter. many of the trucks travel at excessive speed , on the corners they take up the whole road negotiating rhe corner. trucks comming off the side roads never bother to stop but speed up to get aheat of you. For some of the people that live in the back country a trip to quesnel or prince george is a fear filled experience. no goverment dept. wants to take any responsibilty to control the traffic standards on these roads although they a public roads. If you complain they tell you to get a radio or don t go on them.