Truckers driving unsafe vehicles got an unpleasant surprise in Burnaby this week after local police decided to host a holiday Monday commercial vehicle enforcement.
Burnaby RCMP and other commercial vehicle enforcement officers from around the Lower Mainland converged on the Gaglardi Way off ramp by Highway 1 westbound between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.
They inspected 28 vehicles and took 19 of them off the road for safety violations, according to Const. Kevin Connolly, who heads up Burnaby RCMP’s commercial vehicle enforcement efforts.
A total of 37 tickets were issued, he said.
According to Connolly, two of the drivers pulled over Monday expressed surprise at being inspected on a statutory holiday, since the province’s Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement officers typically don’t work on those days.
One driver told police he thought he was going to get a “free pass” Monday because it was Family Day, Connolly said.
That driver was pulling a flat deck trailer with an excavator, a small road paving machine, gas cans, chains and large wood blocks on it, according to Connolly.
“Everything on there was insecure,” he said. “It came off the highway, so those things, if they fell from the vehicle, are going to be moving at 100 km/h.”
The paving machine was also leaking fuel, and the truck and trailer were kept on scene until all the issues were fixed, according to Connolly. The driver was then sent on his way with a $280 insecure-cargo ticket, which comes with points that will affect his national safety code rating.
Police also towed a “heavily graffitied” box truck with bald tires and no brake lights, and caught a driver driving a uninsured pickup that was hauling a trailer with no brakes, according to Connolly.
The Lower Mainland district commercial vehicle enforcement initiative, which sees police agencies from throughout the region come together for major enforcements in the Lower Mainland plans to schedule more events on holidays, according to Connolly, and he has a message for truckers.
“You don’t get a free day,” he said. “If your truck’s unsafe, then it’s going to be taken off the road whether it’s a provincial holiday, a federal holiday or not.”
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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