Safety blitz kicks off as Ontario sees transport truck crashes soar

Ontario Provincial Police and the Ministry of Transportation are stepping up enforcement around commercial vehicle safety after 2022 saw the highest number of transport truck crashes in more than a decade.

OPP officers responded to 9,110 such crashes last year, the most collisions involving the large trucks on OPP-patrolled roads in more than 10 years, according to a release from the police force.

"It's a big number," said acting Sgt. Erin Cranton. "These incidents accounted for 12 per cent of overall collisions last year and resulted in, tragically, 71 fatalities."

Improper lane changes, high speeds and following too closely were the primary causes, OPP said.

To crack down on "risky behaviour" on the part of both commercial and non-commercial drivers, police and the ministry are participating in an enforcement blitz called Operation Safe Driver.

It starts Sunday and will run until July 15.

Fault spread around

The data shows truck drivers aren't the only ones at fault.

Of the 2,858 charges the OPP laid in collisions involving transport trucks in 2022, 1,078 were issued to the drivers of the other vehicles.

"A lot of people who drive cars don't drive carefully," said truck driver Sanyam Gupta, when asked about his experience on the highways.

"They just [turn on their signal and] come in the lane … we guys need to brake, like, for a long time to make a stop. We have heavy loads inside."

Akash Rai, another driver, agrees with that sentiment — but points out that truck drivers can also make poor decisions.

"Sometimes drivers [are] tired. Like, a truck driver is tired, but they didn't take [their] break. They keep driving nine hours, 10 hours continuously — you're gonna be tired."

Strict rules in place

There are strict federal rules covering how many hours a commercial driver can be on the road. Drivers cannot exceed 13 hours and must have 10 hours off-duty time in a day.

Eight hours of that off-duty time must be consecutive. 

In 2019, Transport Canada introduced the requirement for certain drivers who cross provincial or territorial borders to have electronic logging devices for their hours.

Those devices replaced the practice of logging hours by paper, and aimed to combat driver fatigue by ensuring logs couldn't be falsified.

They can also track information such as vehicle location and speed. Drivers are required to provide the records to enforcement officials upon request. 

The regulations have been enforced since January 2023, with penalties in Ontario set between $250 and $20,000.