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<h2><b><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><a
href="http://www.torontoist.com/archives/2007/05/new_summer_same.php">http://www.torontoist.com/archives/2007/05/new_summer_same.php</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h2>
<h2><b><font size=5 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:18.0pt'>May
3, 2007<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h2>
<h3><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>New
Summer, Same Question: Why No Wheel Guards?<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><img
border=0 width=640 height=262 id="_x0000_i1025"
src="cid:image001.jpg@01C78E3A.F3FC6400" alt="truck_tires.jpg"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Toronto</span></font></st1:place></st1:City> 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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A
regional Toronto <a href="http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/coroner_recomend.htm">Coroner's
report</a> <em><i><font face="Times New Roman">from 1998</font></i></em>
recommended that Transport Canada—our federal vehicle regulatory
body—set requirements in the <a
href="http://www.tc.gc.ca/acts-regulations/GENERAL/M/mvta/act/mvta.html">Motor
Vehicle Transport Act</a> 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 [<a
href="http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/2006/agendas/committees/wks/wks060607/it012a.pdf">PDF</a>]
from the <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Toronto</st1:place></st1:City>
Public Works Committee examined the issue and also underscored the benefit of
under-ride protection panels or deflective crossmembers.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><a name=more></a><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>In the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.K.</st1:country-region> and <st1:place
w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>, the deflectors have been mandated by law since
the 1980s. According to the City staff report, Transport <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region> advised that there is currently "no
similar Canadian regulation because the nature of the traffic mix in <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region> is different to that in <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>."
So? With few bike lanes and so many construction and utility vehicles, <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Toronto</st1:place></st1:City> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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face="Times New Roman">Though 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 <a href="http://www.s1gard.com/">this company</a>?).
Instead, it was recommended that City Council appeal to Transport <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> to pass
new legislation on a national basis, which would then include the City fleet.
Transport <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>
could create new regulations immediately, but continues to believe that it's
not a pressing issue.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>What is
particularly frustrating is that Transport Canada <a
href="http://www.tc.gc.ca/mediaroom/releases/nat/2004/04-h053e.htm">passed new
rules</a> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><img
border=0 width=640 height=174 id="_x0000_i1026"
src="cid:image003.jpg@01C78E3A.F3FC6400" alt="truck_tires_options.jpg"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>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 <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>
to actively and rapidly consider a measure that is obviously so critically
important to those who share the streets with these gigantic vehicles?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><em><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Top
and bottom images by Marc Lostracco; middle photo courtesy of Public
Transportation Safety International Corp.</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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