One year ago a scary crash happened in Saskatchewan, experts believe it was not an accident. On April 6 last year 16 people were killed and 13 injured, when a westbound semi-trailer truck struck a northbound coach bus near Armley, Saskatchewan, Canada. The semi-trailer had failed to yield at a flashing stop sign at the intersection of Highways 35 and 335.
With the recent sentencing of the driver in the Humboldt Broncos tragedy, truck safety is on a lot of minds. People started raising their thoughts and concerns related to current commercial drivers training requirements, so local authorities responded with a message, that it is on the agenda and will be looked into very soon. Finally, we got an update from Manitoba Infrastructure agency and big changes are coming this year!
Just yesterday Manitoba Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler announced that mandatory entry-level training (MELT) for commercial truck drivers will come into effect September 1st, 2019.
The requirements will include 121.5 hours of training, which is the equivalent of three weeks of training. That’s the standard Manitoba Trucking Association’s Executive Director Terry Shaw says he would like to see before drivers are employed.
Such tragedy can never go away with time or be forgotten, the families of those who are not with us anymore will never forget and will never get over their loss, the hope is that with the hearing over and with the help of time, they might find some kind of closer and peace, and keep the memory of their loved ones, who left this world early. Our sincere condolences to those who suffered such great loss.
Hopefully, new mandatory entry-level training for truck drivers in Manitoba will help to prevent such tragedies in the future!
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