[SDCBC] Trucks and bike safety

[Ron Richings]

http://www.torontoist.com/archives/2007/05/new_summer_same.php


May 3, 2007


New Summer, Same Question: Why No Wheel Guards?


truck_tires.jpg

Toronto is a city of non-stop construction, which means non-stop trucks and
trailers. We are also increasingly a city of cyclists, and sometimes the
combination of these trucks and bikes can be deadly. Large trucking vehicles
and school buses have a huge open space in front of their real wheels, and
their raised chassis can easily cause a cyclist or pedestrian to be snagged
and crushed beneath.

A regional Toronto Coroner's
<http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/coroner_recomend.htm>  report from 1998
recommended that Transport Canada-our federal vehicle regulatory body-set
requirements in the Motor
<http://www.tc.gc.ca/acts-regulations/GENERAL/M/mvta/act/mvta.html>  Vehicle
Transport Act that all new trucks be designed with side wheel guards to
deflect cyclists in a collision. Existing trucks would be required to
retrofit the panels over a period of time. Last summer's staff report [PDF
<http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/2006/agendas/committees/wks/wks060607/it012a.
pdf> ] from the Toronto Public Works Committee examined the issue and also
underscored the benefit of under-ride protection panels or deflective
crossmembers.

In the U.K. and Europe, the deflectors have been mandated by law since the
1980s. According to the City staff report, Transport Canada advised that
there is currently "no similar Canadian regulation because the nature of the
traffic mix in Canada is different to that in Europe." So? With few bike
lanes and so many construction and utility vehicles, Toronto cyclists are at
particular risk at a rate of about ten injurious collisions with large
trucks annually. Between 2005 and 2006, five cyclists died in collisions
with trucks, and a 2003 study found "that non-fatal collisions with trucks
tend to cause more serious injuries to cyclists than collisions with other
vehicles," mainly due to the vehicles significant mass and slow-moving
tires. Cyclists are also often invisible to drivers, passing right through
the truck's blind spot, and a driver may not even know there's been a
collision.

truck_tires_guard.jpgThough the City considered setting an example by
designing and retrofitting its own fleet (which has an excellent safety
record), they are having trouble justifying the cost of the implementation,
especially since side guards apparently aren't available from any North
American supplier (um, how about this company <http://www.s1gard.com/> ?).
Instead, it was recommended that City Council appeal to Transport Canada to
pass new legislation on a national basis, which would then include the City
fleet. Transport Canada could create new regulations immediately, but
continues to believe that it's not a pressing issue.

What is particularly frustrating is that Transport Canada passed new
<http://www.tc.gc.ca/mediaroom/releases/nat/2004/04-h053e.htm>  rules in
2004 to be in full-effect by September that requires transport trailers to
have better rear impact guards to protect people in cars from sliding under
the truck's chassis in a read-end collision. The level of importance is
based on the number of deaths or serious injuries factored with the amount
of cars and trucks on the road. By their logic, the two cyclists killed
under the wheels of a truck last summer and the three killed in 2005 were
not enough, nor is the fact that 37% of cyclist traffic deaths involve
trucks.

The trucking companies won't implement the deflectors themselves because
it's expensive to install and maintain them, and the Canadian companies feel
that the rules would have to be adopted simultaneously throughout the United
States Department of Transportation for a retrofit to be fair.

truck_tires_options.jpg

So, we've got a nine-year-old Coroner's report from almost a decade ago,
recommendations from City Council and other biking organizations, and a
bunch of dead cyclists. What will it take for Transport Canada to actively
and rapidly consider a measure that is obviously so critically important to
those who share the streets with these gigantic vehicles?

Top and bottom images by Marc Lostracco; middle photo courtesy of Public
Transportation Safety International Corp.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.bikesandiego.org/pipermail/sdcbc/attachments/20070504/9bcae777/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 58113 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.bikesandiego.org/pipermail/sdcbc/attachments/20070504/9bcae777/attachment-0003.jpe 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 52604 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.bikesandiego.org/pipermail/sdcbc/attachments/20070504/9bcae777/attachment-0004.jpe 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 32998 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.bikesandiego.org/pipermail/sdcbc/attachments/20070504/9bcae777/attachment-0005.jpe