1 in 5 fatal crashes involves large commercial vehicles: OPP

OPP have released startling statistics as Operation Corridor gets underway.

On Thursday and Friday, police will be targeting large commercial vehicles to make sure they are in proper operating condition and that drivers are following the rules of the road.

As the campaign gets underway, police have released statistics that show roughly one in five fatal collisions on OPP-patrolled roads involved a transport truck.

Between 2012 and 2016, 266 of the 1,342 fatal motor vehicle collisions in OPP jurisdiction involved transport trucks, resulting in 330 deaths. The majority of the deaths, 286, were occupants of other vehicles involved.

Sgt. Dave Rektor added that a large number of the transports involved were in poor operating condition.

“Between July 2014 and June 2017, 344 collisions involved defective transport trucks, six of which were fatal and 37 of which resulted in personal injury. That is alarming to us. We’re seeing everything from damaged axles, blown tires, detached wheels, faulty brakes, defective hitches and the list goes on and on.”

In other cases, unsecured loads or truck equipment flying into the path of other vehicles resulted in tragedy.

“It’s not like a four-wheel vehicle hits another four-wheel vehicle; you can still have injury and death, we realize that,” said Rektor. “But the damage when a transport truck hits another vehicle or rolls over or spills its dangerous goods usually ends in catastrophic consequence and impact on the economy as well.”

Rektor stresses that the majority of transport trucks are in good working order and most drivers are safe, but notes it just takes one defective transport truck to result in tragedy on area highways.

The Ontario Trucking Association has yet to respond to a request for comment from AM980.