Archive for February, 2008
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Some dramatic testimony this morning at the trial of a logging truck driver charged with the deaths of two people after a tragic 2004 accident on the upper levels highway.A witness says he was driving about 200-metres behind a pair of speeding logging trucks when one of them lost its load on a sharp curve, sending 19 huge logs into oncoming traffic.
The witness says he was travelling at the same speed as the trucks - about 90 km/h in an 80-zone.
He recalls hearing a crash and seeing smoke.
He then tried to help an injured, trapped woman by smashing in her window and turning off her car.
The truck driver, Perry Pelletier, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of dangerous driving causing death.
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Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
More beetle-killed timber will be hauled out of a rural area northwest of Prince George in the next two to three years, organizers of a road safety meeting told residents of the Saxton, Ness, Nukko and Reid Lake areas.
The meeting was called to respond to residents’ safety concerns related to log truck and other forestry traffic.
A lot has been done to improve the roads and safety enforcement in the area already, but the province is willing to do more, said MaryAnne Arcand, the manager of the B.C. Forest Safety Council’s forestry TruckSafe program.
Initially, organizers of the meeting held at Nukko Lake elementary school, about 35 kilometres northwest of the city, said representatives of government and industry would be at the meeting.
Carrier Lumber was at the meeting, but no representatives of the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Forests or B.C. Timber Sales were at the meeting.
Organizers said the provincial representatives had been invited but some had conflicts.
Instead, Arcand provided a briefing of road and safety improvements in the area provided by the provincial government agencies. The briefing noted that $9 million had been spent improving roads in the area, that the RCMP and province’s commercial safety officers had stepped up speed enforcement, more signs have been put up, speeds have been reduced on some sections of road and extra maintenance undertaken. Log truck traffic was also being diverted north to the Salmon Forest Service Road and onto Highway 97 whenever possible.
Still, the residents were told to expect log truck and forestry traffic — which includes pickups and service vehicles — to continue during the winters along Saxton Lake, Ness Lake, Chief Lake and Nukko Lake roads.
The rural residents — about 30 people attended the meeting — had continuing safety concerns.
Those included speeding trucks, sections of road they considered too narrow, lack of communication, and sections of road with shoulders that were not wide enough.
Residents cited several log truck spill-overs along Ness Lake Road.
They also said there are situations in which they believe that proper planning is not being done. “We’re fed up,” said Judy Freeburn, who was particularly concerned with speeding.
Organizers suggested that residents start taking down information on speeders themselves.
Freeburn was frustrated that representatives of the government agencies were not at the meeting.
Arlene Ellison, who is particularly concerned about a two-kilometre stretch on Saxton Road, said it needs to be widened. Arcand said she will make that case to Transportation Ministry which has responsibility for the public road.
Arcand said information she received from the ministry indicated there was some resistance from property owners to sell land to the province that would be needed to widen the two-kilometre section of road.
Ellison, who helps run a recreation site at Vivian Lake, was also concerned about log truck and forestry traffic in the summer mixing with recreational vehicles. She was told there would be no log hauling in the summer.
Alf Nunweiler, who has lived in the area for more than three decades, said he’s seen the population quadruple during that time. He said he believed in some cases roads need to be widened as well. “The job is still to be done,” said Nunweiler, a former NDP MLA in the 1970s.
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Thursday, February 14th, 2008
More beetle-killed timber will be hauled out of a rural area northwest of Prince George in the next two to three years, organizers of a road safety meeting told residents of the Saxton, Ness, Nukko and Reid Lake areas.
The meeting was called to respond to residents’ safety concerns related to log truck and other forestry traffic.
A lot has been done to improve the roads and safety enforcement in the area already, but the province is willing to do more, said MaryAnne Arcand, the manager of the B.C. Forest Safety Council’s forestry TruckSafe program.
Initially, organizers of the meeting held at Nukko Lake elementary school, about 35 kilometres northwest of the city, said representatives of government and industry would be at the meeting.
Carrier Lumber was at the meeting, but no representatives of the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Forests or B.C. Timber Sales were at the meeting.
Organizers said the provincial representatives had been invited but some had conflicts.
Instead, Arcand provided a briefing of road and safety improvements in the area provided by the provincial government agencies. The briefing noted that $9 million had been spent improving roads in the area, that the RCMP and province’s commercial safety officers had stepped up speed enforcement, more signs have been put up, speeds have been reduced on some sections of road and extra maintenance undertaken. Log truck traffic was also being diverted north to the Salmon Forest Service Road and onto Highway 97 whenever possible.
Still, the residents were told to expect log truck and forestry traffic — which includes pickups and service vehicles — to continue during the winters along Saxton Lake, Ness Lake, Chief Lake and Nukko Lake roads.
The rural residents — about 30 people attended the meeting — had continuing safety concerns.
Those included speeding trucks, sections of road they considered too narrow, lack of communication, and sections of road with shoulders that were not wide enough.
Residents cited several log truck spill-overs along Ness Lake Road.
They also said there are situations in which they believe that proper planning is not being done. “We’re fed up,” said Judy Freeburn, who was particularly concerned with speeding.
Organizers suggested that residents start taking down information on speeders themselves.
Freeburn was frustrated that representatives of the government agencies were not at the meeting.
Arlene Ellison, who is particularly concerned about a two-kilometre stretch on Saxton Road, said it needs to be widened. Arcand said she will make that case to Transportation Ministry which has responsibility for the public road.
Arcand said information she received from the ministry indicated there was some resistance from property owners to sell land to the province that would be needed to widen the two-kilometre section of road.
Ellison, who helps run a recreation site at Vivian Lake, was also concerned about log truck and forestry traffic in the summer mixing with recreational vehicles. She was told there would be no log hauling in the summer.
Alf Nunweiler, who has lived in the area for more than three decades, said he’s seen the population quadruple during that time. He said he believed in some cases roads need to be widened as well. “The job is still to be done,” said Nunweiler, a former NDP MLA in the 1970s.
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Friday, February 8th, 2008
Janet Valdarchi and her neighbour Brian Ellison stress they are not against logging or log truckers, but they are concerned that traffic coming out a narrow section on Saxton Lake Road is unsafe.
Valdarchi and Ellison are also worried about the additional logging traffic coming onto Saxton Lake Road from a new piece of road built recently to connect to the Reid Lake area.
Valdarchi lives just off of Saxton Road at the turnoff to Vivian Lake, and Ellison lives at Vivian Lake, about 30 minutes northwest of the city past Chief Lake Road.
The connector road from the Reid Lake area comes onto Saxton right at the Vivian Lake turnoff. The two-kilometre stretch of road from there to the beginning of Saxton Lake Road is of particular concern to Valdarchi and Ellison.
They believe the road is too narrow for logging trucks to pass in both directions, and also believe the increased traffic creates a hazard for people who live in the area, especially when the road is slippery.
Both of them say the stretch of road should be widened, particularly if more beetle-killed timber is going to be taken out of the area.
“You just hold your breath — you don’t want to meet a logging truck,” said Valdarchi.
Ellison said he can’t understand why log truck traffic has been diverted from the Reid Lake area onto Saxton Road since there are more people that live in the area of Saxton Road, which turns into Ness Lake Road.
Ellison, who has started up a recreational site at Vivian Lake, is also concerned that logging trucks and RVs in the summer will be a bad mix. “Somebody is going to get hurt, before this is over,” he said.
The two-kilometre stretch of Saxton Road falls under the responsibility of the transportation ministry.
The ministry’s Fort George district manager Rick Blixrud said the difficulty in widening the road is the province owns only the road top, and it would be costly to purchase private property to widen it. He said there have been measures taken to improve safety, including posting proper signage, ensuring plowing and sanding are done and monitoring speeds. Blixrud noted that three speeding tickets were handed out by ministry staff last week, although he didn’t know what type of vehicles were ticketed.
Although Saxton, as a public road, is not technically a radio-assisted road, forest companies have put up radio calling and mileage signs, which Blixrud said he believes will also improve safety. Log trucks will often let other truck drivers know when and where there is other traffic on the road, he said. Log haulers have also been advised of school bus times as well.
Blixrud said he also believes that there is not likely to be log traffic during the summer months. He also noted that the transportation ministry had spent a considerable amount of money in the region to improve roads to stay ahead of the massive amount of beetle-killed timber being logged. He said $9 million — well above the district’s normal budget — was spent fixing up Chief Lake, Ness Lake and Nukko Lake roads to accommodate increased logging traffic.
“In our long-term plan we’ll look at some of those hot spots, but it takes time,” he said, referring to the section of Saxton Lake Road.
Greg Rawling, the Prince George district manager for the forests ministry, said the Reid Lake connector road was built quickly in January to alleviate concerns about logging truck traffic from Reid Lake residents.
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