A Worrying Start Of Summer On The Roads: Many Accidents Involve Heavy Trucks

Road tolls since the start of the summer have been a concern while many have lost their lives, but truck accidents are attracting attention, with at least seven people killed and nine seriously injured in a month.

“A collision with a heavy vehicle is rarely forgiving,” recalls Martin Lavallière, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi and an expert in road safety.

According to a compilation by Le Journal, we are suffering at least seven deaths and nine serious injuries in a collision involving at least one truck. A report in the middle of summer that Mr Lavallière described as “worrying”.

He explains that due to the “heavy mass of a truck” due to the energy required to propel it at high speed, it is inevitable that a collision will be “violent” and result in death.

“For this reason, there are no fatalities in a pedestrian-pedestrian collision, but the toll increases when the elements involved are cars or heavy vehicles,” he explains.

Better road sharing

The latter calls for a “better division of the road” between users, while believing that some drivers should adjust their driving behavior in the presence of heavy-duty vehicles and stressing that not only truck drivers are responsible for accidents.

“People have to be extra careful on the road. […] Driving is probably the most dangerous thing a person will do in their life, and we seem to forget it,” the professor stresses.

His words echo those of Pierre Bellemarre, a collisions expert and former Sûreté du Québec reconstitutionist, who doesn’t “want to blame the truckers.”

“In the event of a collision, we always look at three factors: the environment, the vehicle and the human factor. […] On the human side, there’s often distraction and inattention,” he explained in a recent interview responding to the fatal collision that occurred earlier this month on highway 20 in Saint-Zotique, in which two children were lost They died and three family members were seriously injured.

According to the expert, an automatic braking system built into trucks, which detects deceleration in particular, could help prevent accidents of this type.

“It recognizes a series of elements and if you get too close to it at a certain distance, it slows down and if you get too close, it brakes,” explains Pierre Bellemarre.

The SAAQ continues to raise awareness

For its part, the Société de l’Assurance Automobile du Québec has recognized that “one accident is one accident too many” and has announced that it will continue its road safety awareness campaigns.

We add that we plan to introduce “mandatory training for all future heavy-duty drivers as soon as possible”.

“The latter includes hours of training, particularly with regard to blind spots and the safety of road users, including pedestrians and cyclists,” it says.

A committee was set up to analyze fatal accidents involving heavy goods vehicles in order to “determine the causes and develop solutions to improve road safety”.

NUMBER OF DEATHS IN TRANSPORTATION OF A HEAVY TRUCK, EXCLUSIVE OF OCCUPANTS OF THESE TRUCKS

2022	66/392	16.8% of the deceased
2021	60/347	17.3% of the deceased
2020	59/339	17.4% of the deceased
2019	55/332	16.6% of the deceased
2018	66/352	18.7% of the deceased
2017	55/362	15.2% of the deceased