EDITORIAL – Sensors will do nothing to resolve the safety issues on Highway 5A
Highway 5A south of Kamloops. (Image: CFJC Today)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE how installing sensors on Highway 5A a few miles north of Merritt to monitor the weight and size of transport trucks will do anything for safety.
The provincial government, though, says it will, claiming the information provided to Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement officers by the sensors will help keep an eye on the safety standards of the rigs.
But while it might help nab truckers trying to avoid weigh scales it won’t do anything about the fact Highway 5A wasn’t designed for a high volume of commercial trucking. The list of accidents involving the trucks just keeps growing.Residents along the highway have been calling for years for a ban on non-local transport trucks from the highway, pointing out that the Coquihalla is virtually next door.
Yet the government, despite studies to the contrary, keeps insisting it’s built to adequate standards. Furthermore, it says, 5A is an important alternative to the Coquihalla in emergency situations.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops, former TNRD director and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Buckling to lobbying pressures. A waste of money. Put a weight restriction on that goat trail.