A local business owner is concerned that rocks flying off the wheels of logging trucks along Highway 18 could have devastating effects on local drivers.
Tara Bushby, who co-owns South Shore Cabinetry in Lake Cowichan, has said two of her drivers travelling into town have had their windshields smashed by the flying rocks in recent times.
“Just in the last two weeks we have had two of our employees driving on Highway 18 towards Lake Cowichan hit by very large rocks coming off of logging trucks travelling in the opposite direction,” she said. “It has been by pure luck that these rocks didn’t come through their windshields and kill our employees or any passengers. If the rocks had come through they would have went right through the driver’s chest.”
Bushby is also on the Town of Lake Cowichan’s Advisory Planning Commission.
She believes that logging trucks are supposed to stop and check to see if there are rocks on their wheels these days.
“As a business owner and a resident of the Town of Lake Cowichan this worries me beyond belief. How many people must die before we find a solution to this horrible problem? Our employees drive to work early in the morning when it is still dark out, and the logging trucks are also operating at this hour. At 6:45 a.m. it is still dark out. I don’t know how the logging truck drivers are supposed to see all of the rocks that could be on their trucks. Regardless, there must be another solution to avoid human error.
“Both of our guys whose cars got hit were driving in the opposite direction to the logging trucks and as they passed the rocks just slingshot forward at the velocity the trucks are driving at.”
Bushby is unsure of a specific solution to the problem but believes there needs to be one of some sort.
“We need to figure out a system to stop these rocks flying. Maybe a regulated or designated area where the drivers of the logging trucks can stop and check. Either that or someone will have to invent some kind of guard for wheels that you can open up and lock.”
There was a death that happened on Highway 18 locally via similar incident within the last two years.