Under the right circumstances, a large truck carrying unsecured dangerous goods on a steep hill in Burnaby last week could have ended up with no brakes at all, according to the police officer who inspected it.
The large, two-axle box truck was pulled over on Cariboo Road by 10th Avenue during a commercial vehicle enforcement Wednesday.
An inspection found none of the truck's rear turning lights were working, two of its four air brakes were out of adjustment and the air lines to the other two were compromised, according to Const. Kevin Connolly, who heads up Burnaby RCMP's commercial vehicle enforcement efforts.
"Under the right circumstances, that truck could have had no braking capacity in an emergency situation," he said.
Equally unsettling was the fact the truck had passed an annual inspection just five days earlier, according to paperwork presented by the driver, according to Connolly.
He said Burnaby RCMP has notified the province's Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement and requested the agency look into the purported inspection.
The truck's cargo, including "several different types of dangerous goods," had also not been secured properly, according to Connolly.
Police order the vehicle to be towed to an inspection facility, and the driver was ticketed.
"The driver had no idea that they had to secure their cargo," Connolly said.
The very next day, however, as police were conducting another commercial vehicle enforcement at Lougheed Highway and Kingsland Drive, they pulled over the same driver.
He was driving a different, more roadworthy truck, but the cargo inside was again unsecured, according to Connolly.
Over the course of two days, the man racked up $576 in fines for unsecured cargo alone.
Over two days of enforcement, police inspected 80 vehicles and placed 51 out of service for safety violations.
"The fact that we were finding numerous serious violations on every truck was quite significant over these past two days," Connolly said.
Other safety issues police encountered included four different enclosed landscaping trailers with uncapped jerry cans inside them.
Officers were met with "a wall" of gasoline fumes upon opening the trailers.
"All it takes is a tiny spark," Connolly said.
One truck police pulled over had four hockey pucks shoved into a compromised leaf spring in an apparent attempt to bolster the truck’s failing suspension, according to Connolly.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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