During the March 2017 blizzard in Manitoba, a semi hit a snowmobiler who was helping a stranded driver near Alexander. The highway was closed at the time. The snowmobiler was seriously injured but miraculously survived.
Then there was the icy morning last month when semis on the TransCanada near Brandon plowed into each other, unable to stop in time.
But it took the tragedy of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash to actually spur governments to action.
In the wake of that accident, drivers and trucking organizations told the media they've known for years there was a problem with insufficiently-trained drivers, and they had pushed for tougher standards.
In fact, a former driving instructor told a reporter the exams are so easy to pass, “anyone with a pulse” can get their Class 1 licence. But no one was listening until now.
Last week, the Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Manitoba governments said they'll be looking at mandatory training requirements for commercial truck drivers.
Amazingly, only one province, Ontario, currently requires semi operators to take training. In all other provinces, if you can pass the driver’s test, you can hit the road without any safety instruction at all.
If this doesn’t make you fuming mad, it should. Everyone who shares the roads with these monster trucks is at risk.
Think about it. Tons of moving steel. Lengthy stopping distances. Drivers who may be new to the business, untrained, overtired and trying to meet a deadline, controlling a machine that can crush your car like a tin can. Or peel the roof off a bus. Or shake the Kemnay bridge to its foundations. Again.
Regulators should have stepped up ages ago. But it took 16 lost lives to wake us up.
On announcing the province's intention to "consult" on the problem, Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler said last week, "Manitoba needs to start this work to ensure that all provinces are moving together on a standardized system of training... We hope to move forward with a plan of action as soon as possible."
Saskatchewan has gone further, committing to a 70-hour training program for commercial drivers starting in 2019.
Good. Well done.
But for the families of the dead and grievously hurt, it begs the question: What were you waiting for?
