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The NDP Transportation Critic is sounding off about the safety audit and regulations in the wake of the horrific crash on the Coquihalla highway.
Claire Tevena said the NDP obtained the compliance reviews for the bus company, Western Bus Lines, and it showed a “clean bill of health.” After the crash an audit was completed and that showed that there were significant issues with the company.
“It’s not so much what the company was doing but this is because of a change in government policy,” explained Tevena. “Back in 2012 the government changed the rules so companies did not have to have audits, they could just get away with doing compliance reviews. It’s a much more superficial look at their operations rather than an in detail one.”
Driver fatigue is suspected as factor for the August crash, which sent more than 40 people to hospital, some of them with critical injuries. The audit found that some drivers had been on duty for 15 hours straight.
“I hope the government is going to learn its lesson from this and reinstate the audit system, and rebuild that,” said Tevena. “This is one way to ensure there is safety. I hope that the government will ensure that there are more commercial vehicle safety inspectors on the road; these are not hard things to do. You don’t need legislation for them; you have a Minister that can say these are thing we have to do.”
Luckily no one was killed as a result of the crash, and the provincial government is still awaiting the results of an RCMP investigation.
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