Truckers for Safer Highways partners with Ontario NDP to improve highway safety ahead of winter

A partnership to make Ontario highways safer has been announced ahead of the winter driving season.

It’s Truckers for Safer Highways with two Northern Ontario NDP MPP’s, Lise Vaugeois (Thunder Bay – Superior North) and Guy Bourgouin (Mushkegowuk – James Bay), and they’re looking to put pressure on the provincial government to make significant changes.

Co-founder of Truckers for Safer Highways and Waterloo Region resident Travis McDougall explained on the Mike Farwell Show where the issues lie.

“Our organization looks at two things. Right now, the training of new truck drivers is not sufficient, and then the enforcement of our current drivers on our highways is not sufficient.”

McDougall explained that the mandated training time of 103.5 hours to become a truck driver pales in comparison to what it takes to become a professional in a skilled trade.

“There’s a lot of different trades that are getting siginificantly more training, and lives aren’t at risk … If I don’t know what I’m doing and I put myself in a dangerous situation, the likelihood of others being involved is also very high.”

He also noted that “more lives will be needlessly lost on our highways” if they don’t increase the mandated training time.

Bourgouin recently tabled Bill 152 or Chad’s Law, which aims to make passing on a double yellow line illegal.

Chad is a resident of Bourgouin’s riding, who was seriously injured in a crash involving a vehicle that unsafely crossed a double yellow line to pass.

As for Vaugeois, she is calling on the government to make sure inspection stations are open and adequately staffed so that safety regulations can be enforced.

McDougall told CityNews 570 that not only do these stations need more staff – there should be more of them as well.

“If drivers expected [the inspection stations] to be open, then the drivers that may have become complacent and think ‘ I don’t have to make sure my weights are legal and I don’t have to make sure my hours are in my logbooks,” said McDougall. ” I don’t have to follow [the rules] because nobody is going to check anyway.”

McDougall added that Truckers for Safer Highways does not see this as a partisan issue, and calls on other political parties to join this initiative.

You can read more about the partnership here.