The death of two cyclists on April 20, 2006 in two separate accidents involving trucks has been discussed over the past three weeks in local blogs, on the news and in the papers. A common cry in all of these discussions is that there need to be side guards on trucks like there are in Europe. If we want to see action taken on requiring side guards on trucks we have to go beyond discussion and try to kick start the legislative process that is needed to make side guards a reality.

There have been many calls for the City of Toronto to do something and there are things that fall under their remit that can be done to address the problem. This coming Monday May 15th, the Toronto Cycling Committee will be debating motions asking the City of Toronto to pursue a number of measures. (See item 5 from Safety and Education Committee minutes- April 24, 2006.). However it is the Federal Government that has the power to pass legislation requiring side guards on trucks, so an equal or greater focus of activists should be at this level of government.

I was not familiar with the processes of the federal government with respect to getting issues on the agenda, so I turned to a local Toronto MP Olivia Chow, MP Trinity-Spadina, the former chair of the Toronto Cycling Committee, for advice on how to bring this to the attention of the Federal Government. She advised me that a petition is the best way to get the issue on the agenda. Petitions can be presented in the House of Commons by an Member of Parliament. Parliament would then forward them to the Transport Committee. Ms. Chow is an associate member of that committee and is interested in pursuing this issue. She could then follow up on the request for action there. Ms. Chow's office advised me on the format of a petition to the House of Commons committee and I then did some research to put together the petition which I will summarize below. You can download the petition here and start collecting signatures. As soon as your sheet is full, mail it in to the address at the bottom of the petition, (Postage Free) and start on a new one. Truck Side Guard Petition. Please ensure that you sign your name and not print it. This is a requirement for it to be a legal petition.

CORONER'S RECOMMENDATION
The Coroner's report: A report on cycling fatalities in Toronto 1986 - 1998 of 1998 recommended that Transport Canada investigate the feasibility of requiring large trucks to have side guards. The recommendation is below.

H. Large vehicles and bicycles

Recommendation #15

That Transport Canada investigate the feasibility of requiring "side guards" for large trucks, trailers and buses operated in urban areas to prevent pedestrians and cyclists being run over by the rear wheels in collisions with these large vehicles.

LEGISLATIVE MECHANISM TO CHANGE REQUIREMENTS

As it states above, the Federal Government's responsibility is to set standards for vehicles manufactured or imported in to Canada. These are under the jurisdiction of Transport Canada. The mechanism to set the stadards is in the "Motor Vehicle Safety Act". The standards are mostly set in regulations which are titled 'Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations.' There is a section of the regulations called Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards Schedule IV. What I think we would need to have truck side guards implemented would be for the Minister of Transport to add a regulation under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act requiring side guards on trucks.

There is a legislative example that could be followed that is quite similar to the side guard legislation. That is regulation 233 which requires 'rear impact guards' on transport trailers. The legislation was passed in September 2004 and the Canada Gazette has a good explanation in the Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement of how this regulation came into being.

Vol. 138, No. 20 — October 6, 2004
Registration - SOR/2004-195 23 September, 2004

MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY ACT

Regulations Amending the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations (Rear Impact Guards)
P.C. 2004-1009 23 September, 2004

INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR SIDE GUARDS Europe has a standard for side guards. (The term they use is side underrun guards). It is called Regulation ECE Regulation No. 73. You can read the regulation at the following link:
ECE Regulation No. 73
UNIFORM PROVISIONS CONCERNING THE APPROVAL OF GOODS VEHICLES, TRAILERS AND SEMI-TRAILERS WITH REGARD TO THEIR LATERAL PROTECTION

This regulation could form the basis for a Canadian Regulation. In fact in setting regulation 233 for rear impact guards Transport Canada considered harmonizing with another ECE regulation, ECE Regulation No. 58 Side Underrun Guards

Since Canada is a member of the United Nations World Forum for the Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, the department examined the requirements of ECE Regulation No. 58, which governs "rear underrun protective devices" — the European term for rear impact guards. To the department's knowledge, trailers that conform to the requirements of Regulation No. 58 are not currently being imported into Canada. Nevertheless, it considered allowing Regulation No. 58 to be used as a regulatory alternative.
(Above quoted from SOR/2004-195 23 September, 2004 - )

According to the Canada Gazette report in the end Transport Canada decided to go with a higher Canadian made standard.

RESEARCH

There are studies that I have been able to find on the effectiveness of side guards. Here is one that I found: A Review of Truck Safety: Stage 1: Frontal, Side and Rear Underrun protection It is interesting to note from this study that side underrun guards would increase safety for all road users: cyclists, pedestrians, automobile drivers & motorcyclists.

It is clearly the responsibility of the Federal Government to pass legislation to require sideguards. There is already a standard that can be used to make that regulation and it has proven effective. If we want to see this problem resolved we have to start putting pressure on the Federal Government to take action. They did require rear underrun guards in 2004, which is also recommended in the above report. They can pass legislation requiring the side underrun guards. They will only do it, however when people start demanding it be done. Lets get the process started. Download the Truck Side Guard Petition start collecting names and start sending them in.

Martin Koob
tcc-rep@tbn.ca