Battle brewing over big rigs on Highway 5A between Kamloops and Merritt

KAMLOOPS — Last week, the TNRD Board of Directors voted in favour of writing a letter in support of a call from local residents to ban commercial truck traffic along Highway 5A between Kamloops and Merritt. Ranchers and residents along that stretch are concerned for their safety, saying the road was never meant to handle a large volume of big trucks.

However, one industry group doesn’t believe a ban is the answer and hopes to work with the community along the highway to find answers.

Big rigs blowing by are a sight and sound that anyone who travels Highway 5A between Merritt and Kamloops has grown accustomed to. However, if some of those folks get their way, the days of commercial truck traffic could be numbered on that stretch of asphalt.

“This is really a safety issue, nothing more,” Bob Price, a spokesperson for Stump Lake Ranch, explains. “It’s certainly not an attack or criticism of the trucking industry. These trucks, in many cases, are too darn big for that highway.”

At the April 22nd TNRD Board of Directors Meeting, Price presented to the board in the hopes of gaining support for a commercial trucking ban along that stretch. That same day, Quilchena resident David Cane was travelling to Kamloops when he came across a trucker in distress on Cardu Hill.

“He said, ‘My truck’s off the road; I just crawled up the embankment. I need help, I can’t get any cell service.’ We got out and took a look because the truck was literally at the bottom of the embankment on its side,” Cane says. “It was not even visible from the highway.”

Cane says incidents like this are all too common along 5A, a route he’s been driving for many years. However, BC Truckers Association President Dave Earle says stories aren’t enough evidence to enact an outright truck ban.

“You cannot make public policy decisions based on anecdote,” Earle says. “You actually have to look at the evidence, see what’s there, and really have a good conversation about the problem we’re trying to solve and what can we do to mitigate it.”

Price says it comes down to dollars and cents for the trucking companies who use the route.

“It is considered by many to be a dangerous highway because of the amount of truck traffic that’s on it — truck traffic that doesn’t need to be on it,” Price says. “It’s only on it for one reason: to save some money.”

According to Earle, it’s not just a case of saving some shekels. He believes an evidence-based approach is the best way to come to a compromise that would work for both truckers and for locals.

“Who’s using it, why is it being used, when is it being used, and what the problems are from that? From there we can come up with solutions,” Earle says. “Going back and just throwing up an artificial barrier, in our mind, is just wrong-minded.”

For residents like David Cane, there’s a simple solution.

“The Coquihalla Highway runs from Kamloops to Merritt,” Cane says. “It’s a beautiful highway and it was built for those trucks. That’s where we feel they should be.”

The TNRD board voted to support the effort to ban trucks from using Highway 5A between Kamloops and Merritt. However, the ultimate decision rests with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.