The Ontario Provincial Police say recent data proves commercial truck drivers need to make road safety their number one priority, while other motorists need to share the road safely with the large vehicles.
A release from Perth County OPP says there have been over 27,000 collisions involving large transport trucks on OPP patrolled roads in the past five years.
In many of these instances, the driver and/or other car occupants are seriously injured or killed.
On average, over the five-year period, for every transport truck driver that died in these collisions, there were seven other lives lost.
Tomorrow, the OPP will team up with the Ministry of Transportation on a 24 hour enforcement and education initiative dubbed Operation Corridor aimed at keeping Ontario roads safe.
The OPP also investigate road incidents every year involving tires or other equipment flying off the trucks into the path of other vehicles.
Whether these collisions were the result of unsafe driving on the part of the truck drivers or the drivers of other vehicles, the most compelling fact remains that on average, over the five-year period, for every transport truck driver that died in these collisions, there were seven other lives lost.
No word from police as to which drivers were charged in the 27,000 incidents.
“Every life we lose on our roads is tragic and, sadly, the highest price we pay for crashes on OPP-patrolled roads is in the loss of human life. As our latest data tells us, crashes involving commercial motor vehicles usually result in a higher number of multiple fatalities when compared to collisions involving regular-sized vehicles. Although our officers see many safe drivers on our roads every day, those who are not need to know just how devastating and costly it can be when they fail to make safe driving decisions or do not undertake proper maintenance and truck inspections.” says OPP Deputy Commissioner Brad Blair.
