Council passes motion on trucking issue

LEAMINGTON — On January 27 of this year, an eastbound vehicle on County Rd 18 in Leamington, collided with a tractor trailer attempting to back into the driveway of a private residence, killing two passengers.

At the March 9 Leamington Council meeting, councillor John Hammond brought forth a motion — outlining the accident and requesting council to seek an amendment to the Highway Traffic Act to curb such events.

Currently, Section 157 of the Highway Traffic Act, prohibits vehicles over 7 metres in length from reversing on a highway that has an 80km per hour speed limit or more.

Hammond’s motion called for the Highway Traffic Act to be amended to 60 km per hour, and be in effect from 1 hour before sunset to one hour after sunrise.

“As a retired firefighter, I’ve seen far too many accidents because of this situation,” he said.

Hammond received full support of council and they will begin the process of requesting the MTO to consider amending Section 157 of the HTA to include his motion.