EDITORIAL – The sad fact is that the Yellowhead Highway might be unfixable
Near miss near Clearwater last week. (Image: Kathy Braaten via CFJC Today)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
‘YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID’ is a saying that’s become popular in the last few years. Whether it originated with Jeff MacNelly, the cartoonist who created the comic strip Shoe, as some claim, or a comedian named Ron White, as others credit, doesn’t matter.
Either might have uttered the line if he’d ever driven the Yellowhead Highway north of Kamloops. Certainly, the folks who witnessed the driver of a semi passing another big rig on a double solid line near Clearwater a few days ago must be thinking it.
If not for quick action on the part of a driver who was heading in the opposite direction, there might have been another Yellowhead tragedy. He saw the two trucks coming, slowed down and pulled over onto the shoulder just in time as they went by.
The incident was captured on dash cam video and made public, resulting in a Transportation Ministry promise to investigate. If the guilty driver is somehow found, he or she should have the book thrown at them.
The Yellowhead has become legendary as a highway of death. Every time a crash happens, we talk about the need for improvements to the highway, more enforcement and more training for commercial truckers. And then we wait for the next one, which, in this case, will probably happen a few days or, at most, a few weeks from now.
The hope is that if enough corners can be straightened, enough passing lanes put in, enough signage erected, the fatalities will drop because inevitable driver error will be alleviated.
But it’s become obvious that it’s just a dream. No matter how much the Yellowhead is improved, people like that trucker will continue to drive carelessly and kill themselves and others.
Which leads us to the sad conclusion that the Yellowhead death toll will never end because what’s wrong with it is so many of those who drive it.
And as we like to say nowadays, you can’t fix stupid.
I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.
Mel Rothenburger 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 has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Yes, you cannot fix stupid. Straightening the road and adding passing lanes does not fix the root cause. The same behaviour is observed on highway 1 and quiet little highway 5A between Merritt and Kamloops. Even on the Coquihalla, with a non stop passing lane and engineered for higher speeds, truckers routinely speed and over drive the road conditions. The obvious cause is the drivers and a lack of government capacity or government willingness to fulfill their regulatory role.
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Absolutely agree. Drivers in BC need to slow down, stay awake and follow the road rules.
Our hospital waiting lists would be shorter if Drs. and other staff didn’t have to stop working on the lists and work on accident victims because of vehicle incidents.
My two suggestions- bring back photo radar and put the gadget on trucks that limit speed. It is time.
And to parents – as you speed along with your children in the car – please think of them. Your driving decisions – speeding, driving tired, cell phone calls – even on a car phone. The saddest announcement we hear is when a baby , child dies in a car accident.
No road changes will ever bring them back.
Please drive safely.
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Limit the speed governor to 100kms/hr and make it illegal for a transport to pass another transport. Make it mandatory that all transports have front and rear facing high definition cameras that continuously upload to a hard drive that is accessible by CVSE and have them downloaded at every scale and/or roadside inspection. Oh and stop paying transport drivers by the load and pay them by the hour.
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