Summer has finally arrived and brought with it some familiar problems. Opening up forest lands to joint use has greatly increased the tourist traffic on the roads. I can appreciate that many of these people are from the city and have little idea how to interact with forestry workers-this is nowhere more evident than on the roads. Many of these people will stop anywhere to take pictures or to just have a good look at the scenery. In anticipation of this, forest companies have put pullouts at most of these spots. But there seems to be a certain reluctance on the part of tourists to get off the road before getting out of their vehicles. The other day I was loaded and came around a corner onto a single lane bridge. There was a car stopped with both doors open and the wife taking pictures of the river. The husband raised his hand for me to stop. Did I have a choice? NO. On both sides of the bridge there were pullouts. When the car drove off the bridge I asked the driver to please, for his and our safety, use these pullouts. The reply was an invitation to "kiss his a--." Wonder why the truckers you meet have attitudes? All of the forest companies have signage and brochures about the proper way to share the road with forest vehicles. Obviously both are a waste of time. I wonder if these travellers understand how hard it is to stop 200 tonnes of truck and logs on a dime. Complicating things has been the addition of continuous shifting. This means that the work is in progress seven days a week. I suppose many of these people work a five day week and expect the same in the forest industry. I try to be as civil as possible when trying to educate these people about the dangers they are posing to themselves and others. The response from the driver on the bridge is an all too common answer to my efforts. But for safety's sake, consider this: First-We love to see tourists out in the forest. Please read the signs before proceeding to your destination. Second-Watch for hazards such as narrow spots, single lane bridges and yield to the work trucks - big and small. Third-Do not drive into a cloud of dust. We cannot see you and the danger is real that you will be run off the road or hit. Every cloud of dust is created by a vehicle. Fourth-Please turn on your lights while on the gravel roads. If we are aware that you are there we can tell the other trucks of your position. Better yet, rather than passing the truck follow it as by his actions you can travel safer as the other trucks know where you are. Five-As a rule, if a truck pulls over it is for a reason. Don't pass unless the driver signals you past. I can't count the number of times I have pulled over to clear a loaded truck and had private vehicles ignore my frantic waving and end up nose to nose with a loaded logging truck. Six-Share the road! As visitors to our workplace common courtesy says we have the right of way. I know that some of us are aggressive. Remember that we are not sight-seeing, but working. We have an obligation to do a days work. Seven-Locked gates and signs indicating logging activity should not be ignored. You may not see any work in the immediate area, but we have all witnessed logs slide two hundred feet down a steep slope. These signs are for you protection. In ending, I would like to say again that we love to see people in the forest. As I said above we have an obligation to our employer; we also have a commitment to do our job safely. This is important to everyone in the industry and we take it seriously. Please have a safe summer and show us some respect. Dennis Ruttan has been a professional truck driver in the forestry industry for many years. His opinions and advice reflect his vast experience driving truck, however all truck drivers should refer questions or concerns on maintenance and/or safety issues to their supervisor and shop mechanic. For more information on trucking safety issues, please contact Forestry TruckSafe, an initiative of the BC Forest Safety Council, at 250.612.2267.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
