Date of Incident / Close Call:
Details of Incident / Close Call:
A good defense can win you an Olympic gold medal and it can also keep you safe on your drive to work. Recently, there have been several collisions involving pickups and log trucks. Here’s a summary of three of these incidents:
- A crew cab towing a snowmobile trailer was traveling up a resource road and shortly after making a radio call at 18km, the crew heard an undecipherable noise on the radio. The driver started to ask for the transmission to be repeated when a loaded logging truck came around the corner. Both drivers proceeded to take evasive action and the pickup’s trailer slid out and contacted the tires on the logging truck’s trailer. This pulled the rear of the pickup into the trailer causing considerable damage to both vehicles. All drivers and passengers were wearing seatbelts and there were no injuries.
- A pickup truck travelling on a logging road entered a corner and collided head-on with an empty logging truck travelling toward the logging work site. The driver of the pickup truck sustained serious head and chest injuries; the driver of the logging truck was not injured.
- A loaded logging truck and an empty logging truck met on a stretch of snow-covered forest service road. The empty truck swerved to avoid direct collision and hit the rock wall cut. Injuries included a sore neck and possible injury to the driver’s lower body.
Learnings and Suggestions:
- A good, safe day starts with the proper preparation. Get enough rest and do your pre-trip inspection to make sure your vehicle is road worthy.
- Don’t rely on the radio alone to indicate where all the vehicles are on the road.
- Don’t be shy, do a radio check! Make sure you can communicate before hitting the road and know the communication protocols for the area.
- Don’t rush. Trying to make it to the next pull-out before meeting oncoming traffic can lead to a collision.
- If you have passengers, use them to help you listen to radio calls. Train your passengers to be good co-pilots instead of distractions.
- Get a clear signal that it is OK to pass before going by trucks on resource roads.
- If you don’t have a radio, consider following a radio equipped vehicle or choosing an alternate route if industrial traffic is heavy.
- Always remember the last line of defense – your seatbelt.
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