New truck safety system coming to Highway 5A

DAVE EAGLES STAFF REPORTER dave_eagles@kamloopsthisweek.com

This year, a new virtual weighin-motion system for trucks — the first its kind in the province — will begin operation on Highway 5A about three kilometres north of Merritt.

In a column published in the spring edition of the Western Canada Highway News, BC Trucking Association president and CEO Dave Earle said the implementation of the new technology is “to address the practise of some carriers who take the ‘scenic route’ to avoid scaling. A particular route of concern is Highway 5A, a route that some drivers have been perceived to use to avoid enforcement on Highway 5.”

Highway 5A is the secondary highway that winds around lakes and hills, connecting Kamloops and Merritt slightly to the east. Highway 5, also known as the Coquihalla Highway, connects the cities in a more direct north-south line.

While not designed to facilitate bypassing a scale, the virtual weigh-in-motion system measures each vehicle using the highway, recording weigh-in-motions and automatic vehicle-identification systems to monitor commercial vehicles driving highway speeds.

Using sensors along the route, measurements record real-time safety and vehicle data, such as weight, height and tire conditions to compare data against enforced standards.

The information is then relayed to mobile Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement officers in the area.

Founded in 1913, the B.C. Trucking Association is a member-based, provincewide, non-partisan, non-profit motor carrier association formed solely to advance the interests of British Columbia motor carriers.