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written by MustBMe , May 19, 2008 (08:36:07 AM)

I am sure speed was the main factor. I have almost been run off the road on more than one occasion by treeplanters coming and going to work. Most of these people are from Eastern Canada and have never even driven on a washboardy gravel road, but yet they feel they have the skill and experience to drive as fast as people who do it everyday. You dont roll vehicles if driving with due care and attention.

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written by JoG , May 19, 2008 (11:22:32 PM)

I agree that excessive speed for the road condition was likely the key factor. The seatbelt is merely the last line of defense in a system with multiple failsafes.

1. the road should have been better maintained so that there would be no washboards.

2. the airbag should have deployed (maybe it did, but it says nothing about it) These are typically very new vehicles.

3. the door should have been automatically locked and should not have popped open (if that is how she was "ejected").

4. If she was trained in driving safely, which most of the drivers are, she should have been wearing a seatbelt and made sure everyone else was.

5. the final line of defense is the seatbelt.

It appears that a multiple number of safety measures or systems did not work properly, failure to not have a seatbelt on, or even the failure of the seatbelt was the last line of defense.

As far as being an eastern driver, Quebec and Ontario are inundated with gravel roads for resource access as well as remote cottage and fishing/hunting access, not much different than here.

Given the age, and the fact she was driving, is also an indicator that she was not new to such roads. I doubt that junior and new employees would typically be driving with a crew in the truck.

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written by MustBMe , May 20, 2008 (05:27:00 AM)

Where does it say she was the driver? I doubt a crewcab pickup has airbags in the back. Most tree planters I have met are college/univ students from the bigger cities and most dont have experience with bush roads being they grew up in large cities. If she was just hired and was going out on her first job, I doubt very much she was the actual driver.

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written by ruskavitch , May 25, 2008 (10:39:36 AM)

There's no way the person who died was the driver. If they were in fact coming back from a day off in Vanderhoof, i would not be surprised if the driver was hung over and tired from lack of sleep the night before. the companies around here are giving the keys to vehicles more and more often to individuals that are too young, careless and irresponsible to be driving on logging roads with passengers! there should be no reason to flip a truck on the kluskus around the 80km mark if you are driving the speed limit.