Managers with the Ministry of Transportation say banning commercial trucks on Highway 5A between Kamloops and Merritt would not make the route any safer.

Two managers were asked that question point-blank while speaking to Thompson Nicola Regional District board members last week.

“Would you say that if all truck traffic were moved to the Coquihalla and off of Highway 5A, that 5A would become safer for residents and people who work along that highway?” director Mel Rothenburger asked.

“No… That’s not what we’re seeing in the data,” Ministry of Transportation regional operations manager Graeme Schimpf said, later adding the Coquihalla Highway would have capacity for extra traffic that uses Highway 5A. The province, though, is not currently considering that measure.

Schimpf also refuted commentary that the highway is not built for commercial trucks. It was the primary route for vehicles between Merritt and Kamloops before the Coquihalla opened almost 35 years ago.

“It definitely has been built and engineered for commercial vehicles, when it was engineered at the time. And through our repaving and strengthening, it can withstand the load of commercial vehicles on the highway.”

Commercial Vehicle Safety Enforcement district manager Glenn Taylor says the CVSE branch spends a lot of time on that highway and says staff don’t hand out very many tickets.

“The enforcement action that we do on that route is definitely higher than any other area in this district. And what we look at is how many tickets per enforcement hour we do, compared to other routes. And this is the lowest violation ticket per enforcement hour in the district, on routes we patrol.”

Ministry of Transport staff also say there have been 176 crashes on that route since 2008, including 67 that involved semi-trucks. Thirty-three of those accidents resulted in property damage only. In total, staff say the rate of accidents on Highway 5A is “right around” the provincial average, but says it is “far below” the critical threshold on both the rate and severity of accidents.

Schmipf says the province has put up 60-kilometre-per-hour speed signs in some spots of the highway, as well as warning signs, rumble strips, lines and other traffic-calming measures in the past 10 years. The entire stretch of highway has also been resurfaced in that time.

The presentation to the TNRD board was requested after a group of ranchers and private landowners in the Nicola Valley asked for support in a proposed ban of semi-trucks along that highway.

A presentation was done to the TNRD board in December, on behalf of those ranchers and residents, which said much of their concerns had to do with safety. Letters have cited poor driving by many commercial vehicles through part of that corridor, with some saying that highway safety improvements by the government have not done enough to prevent poor driving.

(Photo: Lori Brewer)