Unmarked DOT’s Patrol Trucks in Quebec

The first time I saw that dark grey F250 or 350 with LED lights in the front and rear windows, it was between Cacouna and Riviere du Loup, on A-20. Last week coming back from Port-Cartier, I saw it again getting off the Tadoussac ferry boat.

I don’t know about you, but, I have my concerns stopping my truck, if I was asked by an unmarked pick-up truck with only red flashing lights and tinted windows. With all that is going on in the industry, how many drivers ended up in the bunk, tied-up and some with injuries because thieves had eyes on their loads.

The S.A.A.Q. is part of Quebec Ministry of Transport. Maybe we should let know Minister Boulet about this as a safety issue for drivers. Why does the S.A.A.Q. feels the need to intercept trucks for inspections with unmarked vehicles? That the Society has unmarked vehicles are not an issue for inspectors traveling to companies. Even, it would leave more interceptors available for road side inspections.

I don’t want to give any ideas to nobody but, it would be easy to have a truck stopped by whoever molest the driver and leave with the load. Most professional drivers knows here in Quebec that unmarked police interceptors have red and blue lights, and are Ford Crown Vic’s, Chargers or Impalas.

Why not let know to the Minister what you think about this by using this link

http://www.mtq.gouv.qc.ca/portal/page/portal/accueil_en/courrier/formulaire_ministre

By regular mail

700, boul. René-Lévesque Est,
29^e étage
Québec (Québec) G1R 5H1

By phone : 418 643-6980

Or by fax 418 643-2033

All together, we can make changes

Miscellaneous Safety Issues

Recently, pressure has been put on the administration of the State of Ohio by the Ohio Trucking Association to increase at 65mph the speed limit of heavy trucks on the interstate roads of the state. Already the Ohio Turnpike did so to bring back the trucks that had deserted the toll road, mostly because of the increases of the cost to use it. This had showed no significant increase in accidents involving heavy trucks. The OTA, not the one of Ontario but of Ohio, is pushing this issue with safety concerns of reducing rear end collision of trucks by lighter vehicles. This is an argument I have heard of before but not by a trucking association but by two truckers associations.

On the topic of speed limits, this brings me to speed limiters. Accordingly to our politicians north of the border, this is a safety and an environment measure. At a presentation to the Subcommittee on Transport and Transit, Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, was not in harmony with ATA’s Vice-Chairman Tommy Hodges on the issue. The proposal to return to a federally mandated maximum speed of 65mph across the country and to mandate the use of the speed limiter on all trucks at the same speed was not welcomed. Chairman DeFazio event commented on the ATA’s testimony that it was the weakest leg of the measure they proposed to reduce GHG’s in the U.S. of A. by the ATA.

I’m starting to like democrats more…

Let’s come back closer to home. For the last year or so, I travelled a lot more in the “Belle Province” and I noticed the poor state of the lines on the roadways. I remember in the past a former government of the USSQ* had modified the width and the length of the solid and dotted lines on the roads. This was to save millions of our hard worked tax dollars. In the same piece of legislation, the level of reflective particles was reduced also. This brought to me the thought, and I hope someone at the “Table de la Sécurité Routière” will read this and at least give me the credit for it…

If accident and lost of control happens more in the evening, at night or in poor weather, may the lack of reflection or poor visibility of the line be a factor in these accidents?

I do understand that a coat of grime by calcium can cause a lost of reflection by the lights on the lines, as on the sides or rears of commercial trucks with the reflective tapes, but when it rains, it is almost impossible to see the edge or the center lines. This has no sense. I noticed that more one late evening coming back thru Vermont on I-91. The same vehicle, the same weather, the same headlights and when I told the Customs agent I had nothing to declare, I could barely see where I was going. Either the cycles of repainting or the quality of the paint has to be revised as soon as possible and we could see clearly if our roads would become safer.

*Union of the Socialist State of Quebec