To Ms. Eileen Melnick McCarthy, Director of ......To Ms. Eileen Melnick McCarthy, Director of...

To Ms. Eileen Melnick McCarthy, Director of Communications Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators RE Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) – Police Partnership Award Please find the following eight attachments, respectfully submitted for the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) – Police Partnership Award.

• Award Nomination – 2017 CCTMA award nomination - final copy (PDF)

• Letter of Support – ccmta opcvc oacp endorsement 2017 (PDF)

• Letter of Support – Letter of Support for OPCVC – Police Partnership Award (PDF)

• Supporting Documents o OPCVC Media Releases (DOCX) o OPCVC – The Word on the Street – Fall 2013 (PDF) o The Word on the Street – May 2012 (PDF) o WOTS – Winter 2015 (PDF) o WOTS Winter – Spring 2014 (PDF)

I am forwarding this nomination package on behalf of the nominators, Ontario Provincial Police Chief Superintendent Chuck Cox and Toronto Police Service Superintendent Gord Jones. Please advise if there are any issues or further information required. Sergeant Linda Wolf Operational Support | OPP Highway Safety Division-Divisional Headquarters Office 905-841-5777 ext 2026 | Cell 416-605-9232

2009

NOMINATION FORM

Organization and/or Person(s) being nominated: Ontario Police Commercial Vehicle Committee Chair – Staff Sergeant Mike Hinsperger, Waterloo Regional Police Service Vice-Chair – Constable Pat Martin, Halton Regional Police Service Director- Sergeant Scott Parker, Ontario Provincial Police Director- Constable Dal Gill, Toronto Police Service Director- Constable Armando Pecchia, York Regional Police Service Address of Organization or Person(s): Staff Sergeant Mike Hinsperger

Waterloo Regional Police Service 200 Maple Grove Rd. Cambridge, Ontario N3H5M1

Candidate’s phone: 519-653-7700 ext- 8794 Candidate’s email: [email protected] (Please provide one lead contact number) Nominated by: Chief Superintendent Chuck Cox / Superintendent Gord Jones Nominator’s Branch: OACP Traffic Committee Nominator’s phone: Cox 905-841-5777 Nominator’s email: [email protected] Jones 416-808-1914 [email protected]

The 2012 Road User Safety Partnership Award

It is both a pleasure and an honour for me to nominate the Ontario Police Commercial Vehicle Committee (OPCVC) for the 2017 CCMTA Police Partnership Award. The OPCVC was formed in 2010 as a sub-committee of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) Traffic Committee. The OPCVC was created to reduce the number of collisions involving commercial vehicles in which the mechanical condition of the vehicle was a contributing factor. In the years prior to the creation of the OPCVC, unfortunately there were a number of tragic collisions and fatalities caused by the mechanical condition of the commercial vehicle. Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) certified officers from York Regional Police, Waterloo Regional Police, Halton Regional Police, Toronto Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police volunteered to form the first committee and immediately began planning and conducting several joint forces commercial vehicle enforcement initiatives at various locations in the province. These initiatives involved having officers from several police services working collaboratively to conduct inspections on commercial vehicles ensuring that the vehicle and the driver complied with the applicable legislation. Typically, these initiatives involved over 50 officers from numerous police and provincial enforcement resulting in several hundred commercial vehicles being inspected over the duration of the initiative. Officers conducted CVSA Level 1 inspections on the vehicles that were escorted to the inspection location. In the event that a defect was detected that was considered an imminent safety hazard to road users, the vehicle was placed “out-of-service” and would not be permitted to be operated until the defect was repaired. These commercial vehicle enforcement initiatives have continued annually and have increased in frequency and locations. These initiatives have shown how taking relatively few police commercial vehicle trained enforcement officers from different police and enforcement agencies working in cooperation can improve efficiencies of police resources and have a significant positive impact on making Ontario highways safer. In 2016 members of the OPCVC collaborated in six major enforcement initiatives in York Region, Peel Region, Waterloo Region, Caledon, Guelph, and Halton Region. During these initiatives1182 commercial vehicles were inspected resulting in 477 of the vehicles being placed out-of-service for major safety defects. In addition 1165 charges were laid for various offences including 2 criminal arrests. This OPCVC also exemplified a cooperative relationship between the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and the CVSA certified police officers in the province. The committee has also fostered excellent working relationships between law enforcement and the trucking industry. Members of the OPCVC have conducted educational seminars for industry associations, training schools and work with enforcement officers from the MTO to provide information at a major industry conference and trade show.

The OPCVC published a newsletter entitled “The Word on The Street” twice a year as a tool for providing information to officers related to commercial vehicle enforcement. The newsletter was used as a tool to relay information on new legislation impacting commercial vehicles as well as providing guidance on existing equipment and regulatory requirements. One of the most popular components of the newsletter was a section called “The Wall of Shame”, in this section officers submitted photos of unsafe vehicles they encountered or sometimes just some strange loads or vehicle configurations. The goal of this newsletter is to provide officers involved in Commercial Vehicle Enforcement with updates regarding legislation relating to CMV’s to ensure a consistent application of legislation across the province. It was also used to celebrate the great work that was being done in Ontario. I have provided a past issue of this newsletter for your review. Recently, the committee chair received the following correspondence from the Joint Chairs of the Traffic Committee of the OACP.

The movement of goods and services across our province is critical in maintaining a vibrant economy. The use of Commercial Motor Vehicles is instrumental in facilitating this process.

Law enforcement and our justice sector partners play a significant role in ensuring the safe movement of these goods and services; moreover, in maintaining public and road safety. Your ongoing efforts in creating awareness and “raising the bar” in advancing commercial motor vehicle safety will ultimately make the roads of Ontario as safe as they can be for all, is greatly appreciated. On behalf of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, Traffic Committee, we would like to commend all those involved in the production of this informative newsletter.

Another focus of the OPCVC is training frontline police officers in commercial vehicle enforcement and awareness. In 2010 OPCVC executive committee members developed a 3 day Frontline Officers Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Course to enhance the knowledge base and improve the confidence for officers dealing with commercial vehicles during day to day encounters. This 3 day course consists of 1.5 days in classroom and1.5 day’s practical on-road training where students are actively inspecting commercial vehicles with the assistance of experienced officers and the instructors. This course has been endorsed by the OACP Traffic Committee as the standard for commercial vehicle police training in Ontario. In 2016, 16 courses were offered across Ontario where 225 police officers received training in CMV enforcement techniques. During these courses 1217 commercial vehicles were inspected resulting in 295 of these trucks being placed out-of-service for major defects. Students laid 1253 charges for various violations. Each fall the OPCVC organizes a 2 day commercial vehicle education seminar. During the seminar attendees attend presentations from Vehicle Standards Engineers and industry experts on various topics directly related to commercial vehicle safety. In November of 2016 officers received training on Electronic Logs from service providers. Past seminars offered officers training in the proper methods for installing wheels on commercial vehicles and an in-depth review of, and metallurgy of wheel fastener failures as a cause of wheel separation failures. The partnerships developed between policing agencies as well as Ministry of Transportation have provided a mechanism to ensure a quality and effective Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Program in Ontario and have demonstrated results that would not have been achieved by individual agencies acting alone. Our collective goal is to make Ontario’s roads the safest in the world, and working together I am confident we will achieve that. I am extremely proud to be a part of this important partnership.

March 8, 2017

CCMTA Awards Selection Committee

Dear Committee Members:

RE: 2017 Police Partnership Award

It is my pleasure to write this letter in support of the Ontario Police Commercial Vehicle

Committee’s (OPCVC) submission for consideration to receive the CCMTA Police

Partnership Award. I understand that this award is to recognize police units that have been

instrumental in developing key relationships and building partnerships with both government

and private sector agencies in support of the deployment of strategies which will result in a

reduction of injury and death due to road crashes. I believe this matches exactly the

mandate and mission of the OPCVC.

Police officers see first-hand the catastrophic results of collisions involving commercial motor

vehicles that result in property damage, personal injuries and, all too often, loss of life. The

OPCVC originated when a few officers from a small number of police services recognized

that by forming a partnership and working collaboratively they would have a greater impact

on commercial vehicle compliance which would result in safer roads. As this group saw the

benefits of working together they expanded and currently have members from 16 police

services, in addition during their evolution they also developed a valuable partnership with

the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.

Since their creation, the OPCVC has dedicated their efforts in conducting joint forces

enforcement initiatives, sharing best practices and to educating police officers as well as the

commercial vehicle industry through training and newsletters. Their enthusiasm and strong

cooperative working relationships have proven successful in enhancing road safety in

Ontario.

I was fortunate to be involved with the OPCVC during my tenure with the Ontario Ministry of

Transportation. What I witnessed was a group of dedicated individuals who recognized that

the synergy of working collaboratively would not only benefit their members but also the

people using Ontario’s roads. They could accomplish more working together that in

isolation.

…/2

Vehicle Safety

Main Floor, Twin Atria Building

4999 – 98 Avenue

Edmonton, Alberta T6B 2X3

Canada

Telephone 780-427-8901

Fax 780-988-7628

www.transportation.alberta.ca

-2-

Working together this team has made great achievements to improve commercial vehicle

safety in Ontario. From creating a standard operating procedure for carrying out and

reporting on local enforcement initiatives, to the development of an excellent training course

for frontline police officers on how to inspect commercial vehicles they strive to ensure a

harmonized approach to commercial vehicle enforcement. The OPCVC has also recognized

the importance of stakeholder / industry outreach and regularly participate in educational

seminars, trade show displays and regularly deliver safety reminders to their over 2,100

“Twitter” followers.

In closing, I commend the OPCVC for its contributions to traffic safety and fully support this

nomination for the CCMTA 2017 Police Partnership Award. The efforts of this unique

partnership will undoubtedly result in higher compliance rates of the commercial vehicle

industry and will contribute to making Canada’s roads the safest in the world.

Regards,

Alf Brown

Director, Vehicle Safety

Safety & Compliance Services Branch

Alberta Transportation

Phone (780)644-4576

“THE WORD ON THE STREET” ONTARIO POLICE COMMERCIAL VEHICLE COMMITTEE

SPRING 2012 ISSUE 1

It is a great pleasure and privilege to bring to you our very first edition of the OPCVC newsletter “The Word on the Street”.

Our goal with this newsletter is to provide officers involved in Commercial Vehicle Enforcement with updates regarding legislation relating to CMV’s and to be a way in which we can share our successes.

We have been successful, Last year over a 100,000 inspections were con-ducted on CMV’s by well trained certified inspectors. Ontario has one of the most aggressive truck safety regimes in the world and as a result On-tario’s roads are ranked as the safest in North America.

Over the last two decades, we have seen the number of trucks on our roads grow by 64% while the number of fatalities involving large trucks drop by 39%.

“The Word on the Street” will only be successful with your help. Please submit your articles, photos, and comments to the OPCVC so we can include them in future editions.

Happy reading!

Alf Brown

Our First Edition! 2011 Inspection

Results ∗ 106,884 Inspections

∗ 26,533 placed OOS

∗ 24.8 % OOS Rate

∗ 21.7 % Charge Rate

Top 5 Violations

1. Brake Adjustment

2. Load Security

3. Inspection Report

4. Air Lines

5. Hours of Service

Inside this issue:

OPCVC Exec. 2

Upcoming Training 4

Distracted Driving 5

Wall of Shame 7

A bus is ... 8

CMV Safety Manual 11

Officer Notes 12

Dangerous Goods 16

New PMCVI Decals 20

Operation—Spring Clean-up This year’s first joint-forces initiative (J.F.I.) was held April 2nd and 3rd at the Woodbine Racetrack.

This J.F.I. included enforce-ment officers and inspectors from Toronto, Peel, York, Hal-ton, and Waterloo Regional Police Services, officers from the Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Revenue as well as bylaw enforcement officers from the Toronto Mu-nicipal Licensing and Standards Division also assisted with this initiative. Read more about Operation - Spring Clean-up on page 10.

Now in his 31st year, Jim started his policing career with the York Regional Police Service in 1981.

Jim has worked in all five of the York Region Police Districts including the Criminal Investigation section in Vaughan.

In 1998 Jim received basic training in commercial vehicle safety. He was transferred to the Traffic Bureau in 2002 and in 2003 was certified as a CVSA (Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance) inspector.

In 2004 Jim was transferred to the newly formed Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Unit and then in 2005 he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and given command of this Unit.

In 2009 Jim was instrumental in York Regional Police becoming the first and only Police Service in Canada to become a full member of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance.

In 2010 he was elected Chair of the newly formed Ontario Police Commercial Vehicle Committee and continues to serve in that capacity.

Sgt. Jim Slykhuis - Chair

Page 2 The Word on the Street

Mike joined the Waterloo Regional Police Service in 1991 and have been around trucks all of his life. Mike obtained his class DZ license when he was 18 and drove trucks while he was attending Fanshawe College. When Mike turned 21 he obtained his class A licence and started driving tractor-trailers long haul throughout the U.S. Mike continued driving trucks even after he joined the WRPS.

Mike has worked in general patrol, the Emergency Response Unit and Traffic Services. In addi-tion to being CVSA certified, Mike took an active role in the enforcement of motorcycle equip-ment violations which is still a current passion of his. Mike is also a certified Pipeline / Convoy instructor. He instructs officers in Canada and the U.S. and has been involved in several sei-zures of contraband from commercial vehicles.

Mike was promoted while in the Traffic Services Branch to sergeant in 2005 and after a brief as-signment to a patrol division was moved back to Traffic as a supervisor and currently work in that capacity.

In 2009 Mike began training the front line officers in the Waterloo Regional Police Service. Mike found that the training was very beneficial to uniform officers to help them deal with the large percentage of commercial vehicles that they deal with on a daily basis. The course in Waterloo has been a commonly requested course since then. In 2011 Mike worked with Jim Slykhuis and Al Stennett to create the current CMV training package that is now available to any police ser-vice in Ontario.

Sgt. Mike Hinsperger - Vice Chair

MEET THE OPCVC EXECUTIVE

Al joined the Halton Regional Police Service on July 5, 1982 and is currently as-signed to the Regional Commercial Vehicle Unit for the Service. Al has served in uniform patrol in all four municipalities in Halton Region, criminal investigations and regional traffic. Al was a breathalyzer technician as well as a scenes of crime officer for seven years of his career with HRPS.

In October 1991, Al was involved in the “Herman Beier” bank robbery multi ju-risdictional police pursuit which involved a large scale running gun battle be-

tween the suspect and police from Halton, Guelph, Peel, and OPP. This incident involved the use of the FLIR camera system on the OPP helicopter and resulted in Ontario Police Services switching from re-volvers to semi-automatic pistols.

In 1995 Al was transferred to Regional Traffic where he became the lead speed measurement instructor for the Service until 2002 when Al was transferred to the new “Commercial Vehicle Unit” that he founded. Al was trained as a CVSA inspector in 1998, trained in weights and measures, hours of service, cargo securement and dangerous goods.

In 2008 Al was presented with the “Lifetime Achievement in Traffic Safety Award” by the OACP and the “Silver Jubilee Award” by the Halton Regional Police Service.

In June 2010, along with Jim Slykhuis, Al arranged for the creation of the OPCVC. Al has committed his 30 years of policing to road safety in Ontario.

Al, originally from Georgetown Ontario, resides in Ancaster, Ontario with his wife of 27 years, Nicole and their 3 children, Ryan (26 years), Lindsay (24 years), and Ashley (22 years). Al enjoys travelling with his wife, spending time with his cocker spaniel “Sneaker”, World War 2 history and his new hobby, photog-raphy.

Dal have been a Class "A" Mechanic since 1992 and a Truck and Coach tech-nician. In 1998 Dal joined the Toronto Police Service and started his career in 23 Division.

While with the Toronto Police Service Dal has also worked in 31 Division, Plain Clothes, Traffic Services Highway Patrol, and the Winged Wheels Mo-torcycle Unit.

Dal became a CVSA truck inspector in 2004 has been designated as an Inspector under the Dangerous Goods Transportation Act.

Dal joined the OPCVC team when it was formed in 2008, and in 2011 he was voted in as a Director.

Dal has received many services awards over his career and has participated in many joint initiatives.

Dal currently works in 23 Division where he is able to conduct vehicle inspections to maintain his CVSA certification.

Constable Al Stennett—Director

Constable Dal Gill—Director

Page 3 Issue 1

Dale is a member of the Ontario Provincial Police and is currently assigned to the Caledon Detachment. Prior to joining the OPP in 2011 Dale was a member of Peel Regional Police from 1986 to August 2011.

Dale was first Certified as a CVSA inspector in 1997 and then again in 2004.

Dale has also been designated as an Inspector under the Dangerous Goods Transportation Act.

Dale assisted in the formation of the Ontario Police Commercial Vehicle Committee in 2009 of which he is currently the Treasurer.

Currently Dale participates as a member of the Provincial Speed Advisory Committee.

Dale is also a master Laser/radar instructor.

Constable Dale Smewing—Director


Transportation of Dangerous Goods

This course is required for officers to be designated as “Inspectors” under the Dangerous Goods Transportation Act Date: May 22 - 25 Location: Thunder Bay Contact: Sgt. Greg Stein ([email protected])

CVSA Refresher Training

This course is required annually for all CVSA Certified Inspectors in Ontario.

Date: Several courses will be conducted throughout May Location: Various

Contact: Warren Reynolds ([email protected])

Pipeline / Convoy – Basic

Date: June 18 - 19 Location: Waterloo Regional Police

Contact: Cst. Amy Olsen ([email protected])

CVSA Level 1 Inspection Training

Cargo Securement and Hours of Service training are a pre-requisite to this course. These course will be offered Oct. 10 - Oct. 14 for those officers who have not previously completed these courses.

Date: Oct. 15 - Nov. 2 Location: St. Catharines Contact: Warren Reynolds ([email protected])

Advanced Commercial Vehicle Interdiction

Date: Nov 12 - 16 Location: Waterloo Regional Police

Contact: Cst. Amy Olsen ([email protected])

UPCOMING TRAINING

The Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) is developed jointly by Transport Canada, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Secretariat of Communications and Transporta-tion of Mexico (SCT).

The ERG is intended to be used by firefighters, police, and other emergency services personnel who may be the first to arrive at the scene of a transportation incident involving hazardous mate-rial. It is primarily a guide to aid first responders in (1) quickly identifying the specific or generic classification of the material(s) involved in an incident, and (2) protecting themselves and the general public during the initial response phase of the incident. The ERG is updated every four years to accommodate new products and technology. The next version is scheduled for dis-tribution in 2012.

Transport Canada’s goal is to place an ERG in each emergency service vehicle, nationwide, through distribution to provincial and local public safety authorities.

In Canada, the ERG2008 will be distributed to Fire Departments and Police Services through Federal/Provincial/Territorial Dangerous Goods Committee members. In Ontario Police Services should contact Alf Brown - [email protected].

2012 Emergency Response Guidebook


By: Chris Whaley, Staff Sergeant, Ontario Provincial Police, Highway Safety Division

Are you an “above average” driver? Chances are you replied: “yes!” It seems that humans are hard-wired to be more optimistic, than realistic. Psychologists and researchers call it “optimism bias”. Google it. You are more likely to overestimate the positive aspects of your future, despite knowing the negative facts provided by the past.

What it means for you as a driver, is that you are likely to assess your capabilities as being supe-rior when compared to other drivers. You perhaps drive a little fast, maybe even attempt maneu-vers that, if attempted by other drivers, would drive you crazy. These drivers flood the highways like water through a pipe, each one of them convincing themselves that they are a better driver than they actually are.

Does this sound like you? “I can grab a quick look at my email, send that text or make a quick call while driving because I’m a ‘good’ driver. I’m not one of those drivers. They’re the people that need the distraction laws.” >>

Managing Distraction – “Why you’re not as good as you think you are”

The Word on the Street

If I was asked to describe the factors that influence whether a driver crashes or not, I wouldn’t use words like training or experience. The three factors that make a person a “good” driver are attention, perception and memory. To be absolutely clear, a “good” driver is someone who is least likely to be involved in a crash.

That first factor -- attention -- is most significant. Attention refers to your ability to process parts of your environment in detail. Before you can even perceive something as a hazard, you must focus your atten-tion on it. What’s important to understand is that we all have a limited capacity to process the informa-tion our brains are constantly being flooded with while driv-ing.

Often, aspects of our environment are not processed and are lost forever. All drivers can relate to this scenario at some point. You’re driving along and perhaps you’re trying to get your sunglasses out of your purse, maybe you’re talking on your cell, or maybe you’re just deep in thought about your next tee off time. You suddenly realize you missed your exit: you’re not sure where you are or just plain don’t remember the last few minutes of your drive; nothing. That’s because you had no attention focused on that aspect of your environment. Your eyes took in all the information but your “attention” filtered it.

So the roads are filled with these drivers on autopilot, each one of them nothing more than a hypnotized sheep capable of only the simplest responses. “Don’t leave your lane. Don’t hit the car in front of you.” That’s it. They have con-vinced themselves that driving is easy, that they are an above average driver and despite hearing the message that distracted driving is dangerous and illegal, they believe the risk is low. Physics dictates otherwise.

I think of a collision where the driver was on his cell phone, lost control and caused the death of a seven year passen-ger in another car. I think of the young man who was tex-ting right up to the point where he crossed the centre line, struck a tractor-trailer and died as a result. I think of the families who have lost a child or parent, their lives changed forever and hearts broken. For what? That text message? You need to ask yourself how you could live knowing you senselessly took another life. How does it make you feel knowing your life could end with the push of that button?

There are people that care about you so do them a favour. Spare them that broken heart. When you’re behind the wheel, avoid needless distractions and focus your full attention on the primary task of driv-ing. Everything else can wait.


THE WALL OF SHAME Submitted by: Hank Dubee, MTO

Honey… I picked up the lumber for the new deck, and saved the $25.00 delivery charge!

Some people will do anything to make sure the kids get to school!

Driver - “I have not lost a cylinder in 25 years!” Officer - “How many cylinders do you have? Driver - “Not sure”

Time to replace the brake chamber!

This was the only stud holding the wheel on the vehicle!

Missing brake component = No braking action.


A BUS IS A BUS … IS A BUS … IS A BUS …

By: Alf Brown, Head Carrier Enforcement Liaison, Ministry of Transportation

In light of the tragic collision in Hampstead, Ontario earlier this year in-volving a 15 passenger van (which is actually a “bus” under the Highway Traffic Act), I thought I would take an opportunity to review the special licensing, registration, and operational requirements of buses.

A BUS IS…

Under the Highway Traffic Act (HTA), a bus is defined as a “motor vehicle designed for carrying ten or more passengers and used for the transportation of persons” The term passenger implies that you do not consider the driver when determining how many “passengers” the vehicle is designed to carry. Also, you have to consider what the designed seating capacity is “right here … right now”, it does not matter what the original design was. If the vehicle you are dealing with has had seats removed, you must only consider the current seating capacity. Many people will purchase the 15 passenger van type vehicles and remove the seats and use the vehicle strictly for carrying cargo. In these cases, the vehi-cle would no longer meet the definition of a bus.

A BUS IS…

Under Regulation 340/94 a bus is a class of vehicle that may require a Class B, C, E, or F drivers licence dependant on the seating capacity and the type of passengers that are being transported. Any bus that meets the definition of a school bus (as defined in 175(1) of the HTA) or is being operated under con-tract with a school board or other authority in charge of a school being used to transport children or adults with a developmental disability becomes a “school purposes bus”.

A school purpose bus with a designed seating capacity of not more than 24 passengers requires a Class E drivers licence; if the seating capacity is greater than 24 a Class B licence is required.

If the bus is not being used for school purposes, then a Class F licence would be required for a bus with a seating capacity of not more than 24 passengers, and if the bus has a seating capacity of more than 24 passengers a Class C licence is required.

In Regulation 340/94, there are two driver licence exemptions for operating buses that you must be aware of. Subsection 2(4) allows a police officer to drive a bus with a seating capacity of not more than 24 passengers with a Class G licence while in the lawful performance of their duties, it also makes a provision for a peace officer to drive a bus with a seating capacity of not more than 24 passengers with a Class G licence when they are transporting prisoners.

The regulation also contains an exemption for what use to be referred to as “family vans”. Although a vehicle with a seating capacity for ten or more passengers is deemed a bus under Section 1 of the High-way Traffic Act, subsection 2(5) of the Regulation allows a person to drive a vehicle with a seating ca-pacity of not more than 11 passengers with a Class G licence provided that the vehicle is being used for personal purposes and the passengers are not paying to be transported. >>

The Word on the Street Issue 1

A BUS IS …

A bus is a commercial motor vehicle as defined in Section 1 of the HTA.

“commercial motor vehicle” means a motor vehicle having permanently attached thereto a truck or de-livery body and includes ambulances, hearses, casket wagons, fire apparatus, buses and tractors used for hauling purposes on the highways

In addition, a bus is a commercial motor vehicle regardless of the registered gross weight or gross weight for the purpose of section 16 of the HTA, which requires operators of these vehicles to obtain a Commercial Operators Vehicle Registration (CVOR). However, the definition of commercial motor vehi-cle in section 16 excludes “a bus used for personal purposes without compensation”. So again, a “family van” that meets the definition of a bus would be excluded from being required to obtain a CVOR.

With a bus being included in the definition of a CMV in section 16, it then becomes a CMV to which hours of service and daily inspection requirements apply. Again, we must keep in mind that neither the hours of service nor the daily inspection requirements apply to a bus used for personal purposes. Buses used by or on behalf of a municipality for public transit are also exempt from both the hours of service and daily inspection requirements.

A BUS IS …

Regulation 611 prescribes that a bus transporting passengers is a class of vehicle to which the Periodic Mandatory Commercial Vehicle Inspection (PMCVI) requirements apply. This requirement for periodic inspections does not apply to a bus that is used for personal purposes without compensation unless the bus has a manufacturer’s gross vehicle weight rating of more than 4,500 kilograms.

Regulation 611 requires that buses pass a safety inspection at a licenced Motor Vehicle Inspection Station every 6 months. In addition, buses are required to have a brake inspection conducted on them every year.

Section 85 requires that these prescribed vehicles display evidence that they have been inspected in accordance with the regulation. There are two op-tions available for buses to comply with this section. Buses could receive a complete inspection (safety and brake) every six months and if this occurs the vehicle will display a yellow inspection sticker which should indicate an inspection date within the past six months. The other option available to buses is to have a safety inspection every six months and a complete inspection once a year. If this option is utilized the vehicle will display an orange inspection sticker dated within six months and a yel-low inspection sticker dated within one year. Remember the inspection sticker is valid until the last day of the month the inspection was conducted in and we accept inspection stickers from other jurisdic-tions.


By: Toronto Police Service

Police pulled over 313 commercial vehicles during the two-day heavy truck and commercial blitz. They included six tow trucks that were unsafe and did not have valid by-law permits.

Supt. Ron Taverner, 23 Division’s unit commander, said he’s shocked at the large number of unsafe commercial vehicles on roads and highways. “We want our roads to be safe and when you think that 55 per cent of the vehicles that we inspected over the last two days are deemed unfit, that’s very disturbing,” said Taverner. “The numbers are staggering and law enforcement intends to be ag-gressive in their inspection of commercial vehicles. That will be an ongo-ing process…We have been talking to the Ministry of Transportation about these numbers and there is concern at all levels of government about unsafe vehicles.” Const. Dal Gill led an eight-member 23 Division team in the joint operation that also included officers from 14, 22, 31 and 33 Divisions. “The goal of this operation is to promote road safety and remove unsafe vehicles off the road,” Gill said. “Over the two days, we have come up with almost everything that’s wrong with having unsafe vehicles on the road, including defective brakes, insecure loads and drivers under suspension. A total of 196 charges were laid during the two-day operation.

Operation Spring Clean-Up


By: Alf Brown, Carrier Enforcement Program Office

The Carrier Safety Policy Office of the Ministry of Transportation is in the process of developing a New Entrant Education and Evaluation Program (NEEEP) for new entrants applying for a CVOR Certifi-cate. This program consists of three parts:

1. Development of a Commercial Vehicle Operators’ Safety Manual,

2. Requirement for new entrants to successfully complete a proficiency test prior to being issued a CVOR certificate, and

3. Requirement for new entrants to successfully complete an evaluation within the first 18 months of operation.

The Carrier Safety and Enforcement Branch is pleased to announce that with the help of many sub-ject matter experts within the branch and external industry associations the Commercial Vehicle Op-erators’ Safety Manual along with an educational practice test, is now available on-line at the follow-ing link: http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/trucks/

Under the heading Manuals and Guidelines

This manual was designed for all CVOR holders and staff as a resource for Ontario’s safety rules and self assessment tools to maintain compliance. The manual is broken down into 14 modules and com-mercial vehicle operators are encouraged to review the manual and use this new resource for infor-mation.

This represents the completion of the first part of NEEEP and further development of this program for future CVOR holders is underway, we anticipate the second stage to be implemented in September 2013 to coincide with the procurement contract for the Drive Test Centres.

A PDF copy of the complete manual is available on the Enforcement Resources site at the following link: Enforcement Resources Reference Material which is available to OPP officers.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact:

Amy Palmer

Sr. Enforcement Policy Advisor | Carrier Safety Policy Office | Ministry of Transportation | 905-704-2963 | [email protected]

Commercial Vehicle Operators Safety Manual


A Changing Landscape – Officer’s Notes

By: Sheilagh Stewart—Ministry of Attorney General

A recent decision should cause enforcement officers to review and reflect on their enforcement practices, specifically with regard to note taking. Some would argue that the decision was somewhat predictable given the jurispru-dence in this area, summarized below.

In the case of R. v. Vandemunt,1 a Provincial Offences Act appeal decision, Mr. Vandemunt’s appeal of conviction was allowed and a new trial ordered. The issue on the appeal was the extent to which the failure by an officer to make written notes that re-flect critical observations is a factor in assessing the reliability of that evidence from the officer. Mr. Vandemunt was charged under Section 107(11) of the Highway Traffic Act (HTA) with driving a com-mercial motor vehicle with a major defect in it. While testifying at trial, the investigating officer relied on notes he had made at the time of his investigation. He testified that he had an independent recollec-tion of the events. The officer testified that his inspection disclosed that two of the vehicle's brakes were out of adjustment. He testified as to the various steps he took to conduct the test, including the step, during testing, to determine that the air pressure on the brake line was between 90 and 100 PSI. The officer testified he had the driver do that and verified the PSI was within the required range by looking at the pressure gauge on the dashboard of the vehicle. Once that test was completed, he again made observations of the pressure gauge and verified that the pressure was still within the appropriate range. The officer testified, however, that he had not made any notes of the observations he made of the air pressure. He testified as to his normal practice. The defence argued that this failure to note a significant observation went to the officer’s credibility. The defence relied upon cases decided in crimi-nal courts which have held that the failure to make a specific note of a critical observation goes directly to credibility and that the failure to note such critical observations permits a court to reject such evi-dence. At trial, the Justice of the Peace rejected that argument. She found that the officer had an inde-pendent recollection, that he gave consistent evidence and that it was his evidence that the court had to consider as to reliability.

The Judge on the appeal, however, held that the justice of the peace was in error when she indicated that there is a much higher standard with criminal matters as opposed to regulatory matters. The Court held that the standards are identical: proof beyond a reasonable doubt with respect to each element of the offence. Except to the extent which the Ontario Evidence Act may provide otherwise, the Rules of Evidence are as strict for Regulatory matters as they are for Criminal Code matters. It should be noted that, in concluding the officer’s evidence was credible, the justice of the peace did not believe she was entitled to take into account the lack of notes with respect to his observations of the PSI. The Appeal Court was unable to conclude that her finding of credibility would have been the same had she under-stood that the absence of a written note on that important piece of evidence was a factor relevant to assessing credibility. It may well be that in assessing credibility, the justice of the peace would have concluded that the absence of a note was of no particular consequence in light of all the other evidence she heard. >>

1 [2011] O.J. No. 5783 (QL) (C.J.)


This case is merely the most recent one with regard to officer’s testifying as to their usual practice in the absence of notes on points of significance. The issue was raised in a 2005 appeal when, despite the prosecutor’s attempt to consent to a new trial being ordered, the judge comments on the matter before the Court. In R. v. Hayes,2 the appeal court noted that:

“I do not find it acceptable for the police to say on matters of significant importance that they don’t make a note of it simply because something didn’t go wrong, that was good enough for them….the ab-sence in the police officer’s notes of specific recollection of the important information have allowed me to conclude that the information, that evidence is not reliable… for an officer to come to court and say I have an independent recollection doesn’t cut it in this court.”

The Court further noted:

“It is important that the police have in their notebook accurate, complete information about specific is-sues that are called into play in the prosecution… In this case, the officer had absolutely no note at all about anything related to his training or what happened on this occasion. Nothing.”

The judge commented on the officer’s training and qualifications by noting that had the officer made any notes, the officer would have realized that he didn’t have the necessary training at the time of the offence to carry out the enforcement action.

Shortly thereafter, two criminal cases dealt with the issue of significant matters or observations not be-ing in an officer’s notes. In R. v. Aprile,3 the accused was charged with multiple offences. The vehicle had been searched because police thought – because of the accused’s conduct – that he had something to hide. There was nothing in the officer’s notes that he conducted ownership or stolen vehicle searches at anytime. The notes did not mention speed or failure to stop at stop signs as alleged. The trial judge found that the officer’s testimony departed significantly from officer’s notes. The accused was acquitted. In R. v. Li,4 the accused was charged with dangerous and impaired. The police officer did not include all indicia of impairment that he allegedly had observed in his notes. The accused was acquitted. The court had reasonable doubt due to deficiencies in the officer’s notes. The Court found:

“I find that the lack of appropriate note taking on crucial indicia of impairment23 certainly diminishes the acceptability of evidence.”

The issue is well summarized in the following excerpt from R. v. Odgers,5:

"It can be of particular concern in instances, when events or observations of obvious relevance and im-portance, are omitted or not adequately documented in the notebooks of officers. In such instances, the courts have demonstrated a heightened awareness of the evidentiary dangers such deficient notes pre-sent to a trier of fact. >>

2 [2005] O.J. No. 5057(QL)(C.J.)

3 [2006] O.J. No. 4703(QL)(C.J.)

4 [2006] O.J. No. 3454(QL)(C.J.)

5 [2009] O.J. No. 2592(QL)(C.J.)


When serious inadequacies are demonstrated, the credibility of police officers can in fact be dis-counted. It goes without saying that the absence of notes on an important factor is relevant to an offi-cer's credibility. As a result the courts have on occasion been reluctant to attribute much weight to evi-dence adduced viva voce by an officer in the absence of corroborating written references in that offi-cer's notebook. Ultimately however, this is a matter of common sense and as usual each case must be determined on its merits."

In R. v. Kellar 6, evidence as to officer’s training as a radar operator and evidence as to the officer’s de-termination that the instrument was functioning properly was ruled inadmissible at trial on the basis that it was an unsupported recollection (no notes). Defence had successfully argued that evidence was inadmissible. In ordering a new trial, the judge noted that the trier of fact must assess any witness’s recollection in light of a number of factors. Police officers testify in cases where they investigate a num-ber of people in the same fashion. The absence of notes with regard to the specifics would cause the trier of fact to critically assess that recollection. There may be a reason for the independent recollection absent notes or they may not be. The recollection of the officer is admissible and must then be as-sessed in terms of the weight to be accorded to it. In other words, the justice of the peace was mis-taken to simply rule the officer’s evidence inadmissible.

In R. v. Nave 7, the officer stated that the vehicle had caught her attention as it was travelling at a high rate of speed and she said that this observation was in her notes. She only had in her notes that the vehicle was speeding. She did not qualify that response in any fashion. She had nothing noted with re-gard to the tests she performed and she had no independent recollection. The trial court dismissed the charge.

The case of R. v. Newbury 8, involved a charge of speeding. The Court noted that virtually none of the evidence given by the officer- in- chief was contained in his notes. He testified that he tested the device in accordance with the manufacturer’s specifications. During cross-examination the officer was shown the testing procedures, which were made an exhibit. The evidence of the officer as to how he con-ducted the tests was contrary to the manufacturer’s information. The officer’s notes were made an ex-hibit. The Court noted that they were brief and sparse – two and a half sentences in length. On the front of the officer’s copy of the certificate of offence were various symbols and abbreviations not tran-scribed in his notes. The defence argued that there was nothing meaningful in the notes on which the officer could refresh his memory and that there had been no effective disclosure. The Court held that the officer must not only have notes adequate to refresh his memory but also sufficient enough to allow a defendant to make full answer and defence as well as to fulfill the prosecution’s disclosure obligation. It was not acceptable for the officer to say that he did not note it as he would remember it. It is impor-tant to the proper functioning of the judicial fact finding role that significant facts be recorded by police. The evidence in totality was found to show non-compliance with the manufacturer’s instructions with regard to testing. >>

6 [2006] O.J. No. 3888(QL)(C.J.)

7 [2008] O.J. No. 5664(QL)(C.J.)

8 [2008] O.J. No. 5700(QL)(C.J.)


The Court was also concerned about the reliability of the officer’s testimony because of his failure to note the important information of his evidence in his notes. The Court dismissed the charge as it was left with a reasonable doubt as to the accuracy and reliability of the device. In a summary conviction appeal - R. v. Antoniak,9- the trial judge had held that officer had made a valid demand for a breath sample despite the fact that the officer did not have a written note to that effect. The roadside screening demand was printed in the officer’s notebook. He admitted, on cross-examination, that he had not made a note of his demand or the response but insisted that he had a clear recollection of having done so and that it was standard procedure for him to read the demand. The accused did not testify. The appeal against conviction was dismissed with the Court noting: “It should be remembered that an officer’s notes are not evidence, but are merely a testimonial aid. Trial judges routinely tell officers on the witness stand that they may use their notes to refresh their memory, but that they must also have an independent recollection of the events. To elevate the ab-sence of a notation to a mandatory finding that the event did not occur would eliminate the officer’s independent recollection from the equation. The notes would become the evidence”. Further:

“The significance of an omission in an officer’s notebook, just like the significance of an inconsistency in a witness’s testimony, must be determined by the trier of fact on a case-by-case basis. The determina-tion of that significance is entitled to deference on appeal”.

9 [2007] O.J. No. 4816(QL)(S.C.J.)

About the Author Sheilagh Stewart

Sheilagh works for the Criminal Law Division, Ministry of the Attorney General. Sheilagh has been an Assistant Crown Attorney since 1984. During that time, she has held a number of progressive assignments within the Crimi-nal Law Division.

Sheilagh speaks regularly to enforcement agencies, prosecutors and police on criminal and provincial offences, including the Criminal Code of Canada, the Provincial Offences Act and the Highway Traffic Act. Sheilagh has at-tended and presented at local, provincial, national and international law enforcement conferences and educational seminars.

Sheilagh also sits on numerous committees in regard to the Provincial Offences Act and related projects and initia-tives, including the Law Commission of Ontario’s Project on the Modernization of the POA. She has been actively involved in the implementation of recent changes to the POA, including the new Early Resolution process and re-mote appearances. Sheilagh is a member of a variety of provincial law enforcement committees, including the Pro-vincial Speed Advisory Committee and the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police Traffic Committee.

Sheilagh is a published author, including numerous papers on drinking and driving- related issues at the interna-tional level. She is the author of Stewart on Provincial Offences Procedure in Ontario (Earlscourt Legal Press), the third edition of which was released in 2011.

Sheilagh is the first non-police recipient of the Award of Excellence from the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police and, when not travelling or walking her 15 year old Wheaton Terrier, responds to emails requesting information or assistance.


RESPONDING TO DANGEROUS GOODS INCIDENTS

By: Alf Brown, Dangerous Goods Coordinator, Ministry of Transportation

In any occurrence involving a spill or leak from a commercial motor vehicle, aircraft or train, there is a potential that dangerous goods may be present. Many chemicals or other materials pose a health and safety risk, even in minute quantities. Some of these products become more dangerous after the inci-dent due to improper handling. You should not attempt to extinguish a fire until the risks of the prod-uct are known as some of the materials can react violently or even explosively with water.

As a first responders at the scene of a dangerous goods incident you should always attempt to get as much information about the dangerous goods in question as soon as possible. You must always keep the following safety precautions in mind.

SAFETY PRECAUTIONS

APPROACH CAUTIOUSLY FROM UPWIND. If wind direction allows, consider approaching the inci-dent from uphill. Do not attempt a rescue until the situation has been fully assessed.

SECURE THE SCENE. Without entering the immediate hazard area, isolate the area and assure the safety of people and the environment, keep people away from the scene and outside the safety perime-ter. Allow enough room to move and remove your vehicle. Maintain control of the site.

Note: Assess the risks before igniting highway flares

ASSESS THE SITUATION - Depending on hazards or potential materials, consider evacuation, traffic control and perimeter control as appropriate. Where appropriate, wait for the Fire Department or other Emergency Services who possess the proper breathing apparatus and protective clothing before ap-proaching the scene. Continually reassess the situation and modify the response accordingly. The first duty is to consider the safety of people in the immediate area, including your own.

IDENTIFY THE HAZARDS - Placards, container labels, shipping documents, material safety data sheets, transport container shapes, and/or knowledgeable persons on the scene are valuable informa-tion sources.

DECIDE ON SITE ENTRY - Any efforts made to rescue persons, protect property or the environment must be weighed against the possibility that you could become part of the problem. Enter the area only when you are fully aware of the dangers present.

ABOVE ALL - Do not walk into or touch spilled material. Avoid inhalation of fumes, smoke and vapors, even if no dangerous goods are known to be involved. Do not assume that gases or vapors are harm-less because of lack of a smell - odorless gases or vapors may be harmful.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE GUIDEBOOK - Officers should also refer to the Emergency Response Guidebook which may provide important safety information. >>


PLACARDS AND LABELS

Generally, only vehicles transporting more than 500 kg of “Dangerous Goods” must display placards. Placards are diamond shaped, a minimum of 25 cm x 25 cm in size, and are required to be displayed on all four sides of a transport vehicle that is carrying the dangerous goods. The placard provides recogni-tion information in a number of ways:

♦ the coloured background;

♦ the symbol at the top;

♦ the TDG primary hazard class number at the bottom; and in addition

♦ the UN number may be required to be displayed in a white rectangle within the placard or an orange panel beside the placard

Labels are similar to placards in appearance and generally must be securely affixed to small packages containing dangerous goods. The label should be located near the proper shipping name and the UN #.

Colours, symbols and numbers on both placards and labels provide the responder with a means of iden-tifying the materials and their hazards.

PLACARD / LABEL COLOURS

The following colours are used to indicate the classification of the hazards.

>>

PLACARD COLOUR CLASSIFICATION

Orange Explosive

Red Flammable Or Combustible

Green Non-Flammable Gas

Yellow Oxidizing Material

White Toxic/Poison Material

White with red vertical stripes Flammable Solid

Yellow / white with trefoil symbol Radioactive Material

Blue Water Reactive Substances

Red / White “DANGER” Mixed Load – Different Classes


SHIPPING DOCUMENTS

Shipping papers are required for most dangerous goods in transportation. First responders may find these documents in the following locations:

the cab of the motor vehicle

The shipping documents provide vital information when responding to a dangerous goods incident. Shipping documents contain valuable information needed to identify the hazards of the dangerous goods and the quantities involved.

The shipping documents must contain:

♦ the proper shipping name and UN number of the dangerous good;

♦ the hazard class of the dangerous good;

♦ the total quantity and number of packages;

♦ a 24 hour emergency phone number; and if required

♦ Emergency Response Assistance Plan (ERAP) # and phone number to activate.

COMMUNICATION

As information becomes available the officer on scene should advise the dispatch of dangerous goods particulars including:

♦ Placards displayed

♦ Colour, Number in Bottom Corner

♦ Product Information

♦ Class, Division, UN#

♦ 24 Hour Emergency Number

♦ ERAP #

♦ Shape of Transport Vehicle

♦ # of Vehicles Involved

♦ Is the product leaking

♦ Is the vehicle on fire

>>


CANUTEC

CANUTEC is the Canadian Transport Emergency Centre operated by Transport Canada to assist emergency response personnel in handling dangerous goods emergencies. CANUTEC is one of the ma-jor programs instituted by Transport Canada to promote public safety during movement of people and goods in Canada

CANUTEC has set up a scientific data bank on chemicals manufactured, stored and transported in Can-ada and is staffed by professional scientists specialized in emergency response and experienced in inter-preting technical information and providing advice.

CANUTEC's scientists, using the computerized information network accessible to them and their profes-sional experience and knowledge, can provide immediate advice and recommend actions to be taken and those to avoid in dangerous goods emergencies.

Taking into consideration the characteristics of the dangerous goods involved and the particular condi-tions at the emergency site, CANUTEC's professional staff can provide immediate advice on:

♦ chemical, physical and toxicological properties and incompatibilities of the dangerous goods

♦ health hazards and first aid;

♦ fire, explosion, spill or leak hazards;

♦ remedial actions for the protection of life, property and the environment;

♦ evacuation distances;

♦ personal protective clothing and decontamination.

CANUTEC staff does not go to the site of an incident. Advice and information are provided by tele-phone. In some instances, standard information and data can also be transmitted in printed copy to the site. This complements the verbal advice and recommendations given by CANUTEC staff members. CANUTEC can also provide communication links with the appropriate industry, government or medical specialists. The shipper of the dangerous goods involved can also be linked to the site to deal with in-structions on cleanup, disposal and/or recovery.

Should on-site assistance be required, CANUTEC can assist in the activation of industry emergency re-sponse plans.

Voice communications and written information are retained in confidence for two years for the protec-tion of all parties.

CANUTEC also offers a 24-hour emergency telephone service.

To contact CANUTEC:

Emergency: (613) 996-6666 (call collect) Cellular: * 666 (Canada only)

Information: (613) 992-4624 (call collect)

By Jim Slykhuis, York Regional Police

In September of 2011 I attended Pittsburgh with Armando Pecchia of my Service and Dal Gill, Steve Burns and Alex Crews from Toronto Police. We attended for the weekend to observe their annual SOAR (Safe Op-erations are Your Responsibility) event. We had attended at the invitation of Tom Jacques who had attended in May at the annual Wonderland Blitz. These type of events are unique in that they allow us to interact with members of another country to see how they conduct business and also to provide them with some feedback on the way we operate.

The event was fantastic however the true benefit came from the remainder of the weekend. We were taken for a ride on the Pittsburgh Police boat at night to view the city lights and were provided with a motorcycle escort to the Pittsburgh Penguins practice rink. We were also given a tour of Heinz Field, which for those of you that do not follow the NFL is where the Pittsburgh Steelers play. Immediately after the event we went North approximately 2 hours to a cottage owned by Tom for the night. This also provided us time to relax and get to know members of the Pittsburgh Police in other that a formal work environment.

I know that we will be trying again this year to return to Pittsburgh for this event and encourage any of you that can make to the trip to attend. It is extremely worthwhile and informative.

Inspecting Vehicles in Steel Town

If you would like more information or are interested in joining the OPCVC you can contact any one of the members of the executive for more information.

Jim Slykhuis - [email protected]

Mike Hinsperger - [email protected]

Al Stennett - [email protected]

Dal Gill - [email protected]

Dale Smewing - [email protected]

“I feel that the formation of this committee is a very big step in the right direction to address road safety issues surrounding the large volume of commercial vehicles on our highways daily. I firmly be-lieve that through enforcement as well as education and legislative improvements that we can continue to solidify the foundation and cooperative spirit that has been built between police agencies and our partners within the Ministry of Transportation to make the high-ways in Ontario the safest in the world.”

Sgt. Mike Hinsperger Waterloo Regional Police Service

“The Word on the Street” Editorial Staff

Lydia Hiller - P.R.P.S.

[email protected]

Jim Gordon - G.P.S. [email protected]

Mike Di Pasquale - OPP

[email protected]

Alf Brown - MTO [email protected]

By: Alf Brown

Section 85 of the Highway Traffic Act requires anyone operating a vehicle of a type or class pre-scribed in Regulation 611 on a highway to display on the vehicle a device prescribed in the regula-tions as evidence that the inspection requirements and performance standards have been complied with.

New Periodic Mandatory Commercial Vehicle Inspection (PMCVI) decals will be available to Motor Ve-hicle Inspection Stations soon. These new decals have been changed to incorporate new terminol-ogy for classes of vehicles. For example, Regulation 629 under the Highway Traffic Act no longer uses the term Physically Disabled Passenger Vehicle but now refers to those vehicles as “Accessible Vehicles”.

In addition the decals have also been changed so that they can be used until the year 2019.

New Annual Inspection Stickers

“THE WORD ON THE STREET”

ONTARIO POLICE COMMERCIAL VEHICLE COMMITTEE

FALL 2013

As I reflect on the past six months there has been a great deal of focus and interest from Law Enforce-ment to Media to Industry on CMV enforcement ini-tiatives that have been hosted around the province.

The one word that seems to continually surface dur-ing these comments is “co-operation”. The OPCVC continues to grow in membership as well as work load. I am extremely impressed how more and more law enforcement agencies continue to amalgamate during these initiatives to a common focus of greater road safety around our province.

In this time of budgetary restraint and fiscal belt tightening across the law enforcement community, the OPCVC has shown that we continue to focus on our commitment to commercial vehicle safety regardless of the jurisdiction and to front line training of police officers in this area across the province. This is being done through the congenial teamwork of many Police and MTO officers coming together for a common cause. Every time I have the opportunity to attend one of the multi-jurisdictional enforcement initiatives I can’t help but wonder if this many law enforce-ment agencies can come together and continually glean the results from these initiatives that we are achieving, why can’t other committees do the same?

Our efforts are being noticed on both sides of the border. As many of you are aware representatives from the States of New York and Pennsylvania have attended several of the blitzes this year to see how we are doing business and witnessed the impressive out-of-service results that we are collectively achieving. This is a testimony to the great work each of you are doing out there, and how well you represent your respective agen-cies. We will never truly know how many lives we have saved by remov-ing the major defects that we often find, from the road. I have received compliments on the great work that is being done and our ability to work in cooperation with each other regardless of the shoulder flash we wear, from our industry partners as well as numerous law enforcement agen-cies- including my own.

I simply want to say how proud I am to be a part of this committee.

Thanks to each of you for the daily efforts you continually put forth and the commitment you provide to the committee, to our profession and to road safety in Ontario.

Stay safe.

Sgt. Mike Hinsperger

Message from the OPCVC Chair 2013 Inspection Results *

YTD—Jan.— Sept. 30

∗ 80,787 Inspections

∗ 22,397 Placed OOS

∗ 27.7 % OOS Rate

∗ 26.02 % Charge Rate

* Preliminary Data

Top 5 Violations

1. Trip Inspection

2. CVOR

3. PMCVI

4. Veh. Maintenance

5. Hours of Service

Inside this issue:

New Executive 2

Interdiction Corner 3

RCMP “SIR” 5

Wall of Shame 8-9

JFI’s 10

OACP - Tow WG 12

CMV Inspections 14

Wheel Off Training 20

Upcoming Training 25

EDITION #4


OPCVC Has a New Executive By: Alf Brown, OPCVC - Director of Communications During the Spring meeting of the OPCVC, two vacancies on OPCVC Executive were filled. The vacancies were a result from the retirement of Sgt. Jim Sylikhuis and the pending retirement of Constable Al Sten-net. Sgt. Mike Hinsperger was voted to take over as the Chairman of the committee, which resulted in an election to fill the Vice Chairman’s position, which was currently held by Mike. Constable Pat Martin was voted by the members present to take over the Vice Chair responsibilities. Alf Brown was voted to take on the Secretary responsibilities (I prefer “Director of Communications”). The remaining Executive re-mained the same, Dale Smewing, Director and Dal Gill, Director.

2013 OPCVC Executive (L to R) Alf Brown - MTO, Pat Martin - H.R.P.S., Mike Hinsperger - W.R.P.S., Dale Smewing - O.P.P, Dal Gill - T.P.S.

The OACP Traffic Safety – Award of Excellence is awarded annually to an indi-vidual who has clearly de-voted part of their career to furthering traffic safety initia-tives.

This prestigious award was presented to Sgt. Jim Slykhuis on June 25, 2013 during the OACP’s Annual Meeting in Peterborough. Sgt. Jim Slykhuis and Su-

perintendent Don Bell of the OPP

Sgt. Jim Slykhuis and York Regional Police Deputy Chief Bruce Herridge


Constable Robert Sinclair from the Ontario Provincial Police - 1000 Island Detachment was involved in a sei-zure of illegal cigarettes.

The vehicle was stopped for a CVSA inspection. The driver appeared to have no knowledge of trucking in-dustry. The vehicle was transporting 189 cases of ciga-rettes worth $212,000 Canadian.

Highway Traffic Act charges were laid for overweight, failing to carry a daily log and failing to carry an inspection report.

In addition a charge was laid by the RCMP under the Excise Act 2001 against both the driver and com-pany.

On August 10, 2013, at 5:30 pm, RCMP Headingley Traffic Services were conducting commercial vehicle inspections at the Headingley weight scales when officers came into contact with a semi trailer unit being operated by a carrier based in the GTA.

During the inspection, an odour of marihuana was detected from the cab. Further investigation resulted in the seizure of marihuana and over $8,000 of cash bundled from the cab of the semi.

A subsequent search of the trailer unit resulted in 388 pounds of marihuana concealed in duffle bags and boxes.

Both occupants were arrested have both been charged individually with Possession for the purpose of trafficking (cannabis) and Trafficking (cannabis) under the Controlled Drug Substances Act as well as Pos-session of proceeds of crime.

Commercial Vehicle Criminal Interdiction

CONTRABAND TYPE TOTALS

Marihuana (Gram) $13,952,516.15

Cocaine (Gram) $3,244,007.42

MDMA Ecstasy (1 Gram) $1,992,535.50

Cash $1,748,718.62

Marihuana (1 Plant) $1,501,250.00

TOTAL CONTRABAND $24,583,180.87

TOP 5 CONTRABAND ($) % OF TOTAL SEIZURES BY PROV.

The Word on the Street Page 4

Pipeline Convoy Instructor Certification

Submitted By: Sgt. Mike Hinsperger, Waterloo Regional Police

On September 30th to October 3rd a Pipeline Convoy Instructor Certification course was held at DEPOT -the RCMP national training facility in Regina SK.

This was the first instructor course to be held in several years. Seventeen officers from Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and Australia were certified as new instructors in this national program.

As the program Provincial Coordinator for Ontario I would like to say how impressed I was with the other instructors and provincial coordinators that attended. I would especially like to thank instructors, Allan Roberts, Tim Baulkham, and Brent Steeves for all the time and effort they put into the arranging of the course, right down to the accommodations. This training would have never happened without their commitment to this very valuable training. I would also like to thank the recently appointed RCMP Na-tional Program Coordinator Dan Dambrauskas for his efforts bringing together all the provinces and terri-tories to place the right people in the right positions.

Having attended this course provides me with encouragement that this national program will continue to provide frontline officers with the training to intercept traveling criminals on our roads and make our highways across this nation safer.


Submitted By: Robert Zawerbny, CIIT Criminal Intelligence Research Specialist Royal Canadian Mounted Police

The driver of a vehicle passes the gate of a facility several times, slows down to take photographs, and then speeds off.

Your front desk receives a phone call from someone claiming to be a potential customer asking unusual questions about security or business processes.

Company uniforms or security uniforms go missing during dry-cleaning or otherwise.

Consider that such suspicious incidents may in fact represent threats to your business operations or to Canadians in general. These types of incidents may not normally garner the attention

of law enforcement if obvious crimes were not committed; however potential risks are noteworthy from business continuity perspectives. The RCMP works with Canadian critical infrastructure own-ers and operators to prevent, detect, investigate and re-spond to criminal threats to critical infrastructure.

On December 20, 2012, the online Suspicious Incident Reporting (SIR) system was officially launched by the RCMP’s Critical Infrastructure Intelligence Team (CIIT). SIR was designed to collect information on suspicious incidents that may be related to criminality and as such pose threats to critical infrastructure. SIR provides the private sector stakeholder with a means to report suspi-cious incidents online from their own work terminal. Sus-picious incidents within SIR include behaviors and activi-ties that, when viewed against available intelligence, may pose a credible threat to the ability of that facility to op-erate. As such, these suspicious incidents may be indica-tors of terrorist pre-incident planning or other serious organized criminal activity at your facility. Reports submitted to SIR are analyzed in conjunction with information from other sources to pro-duce CIIT products. These products serve to provide situational awareness and potential risk miti-gation to business operations to ensure critical infrastructure resiliency, and when necessary, initi-ate or assist the RCMP in criminal investigations.

SIR is more than a reporting system, it is a mechanism that allows the RCMP to develop crucial stakeholder operational contacts, support criminal investigations, and maintain continuous dialogue with internal and external critical infrastructure stakeholders. >>>

RCMP Suspicious Incident Reporting (SIR) System

cont’d from Page 5

Currently, 150 SIR users from the public and private sector representing Energy and Utilities, Finance, Manufacturing, Government and Transportation sectors, are submitting reports online or through other means.

In 2012, 26 SIR reports were generated for the manufacturing sector, 25 of them involving the chemical industrial base sector. Seven of these SIR reports dealt with missing radiological devices from health centers or sur-vey companies.

In 2011, CIIT received information from a stakeholder in Ontario relating to found property that contained concerning material. The incident led to a criminal investigation resulting in charges under the terrorism provi-sions of the criminal code. In September 2012, a SIR report was gener-ated by an Ontario stakeholder in regards to a suspicious person who had been observed near their facility on more than one occasion. Also in September 2012, information was received by CIIT relating to report indi-cated a chemical transportation container in British Columbia was believed to have been tampered with. It was transporting hydrogen peroxide.

What makes the SIR program unique? The RCMP recognizes the sharing of intelli-gence with sector owners and operators is a must. If there is a threat to critical infrastructure, it is im-perative sector stakeholders be informed as they are ultimately responsible to ensure the resiliency of Canada critical infrastructure. The contributions, and these partnerships, ensure situational awareness by all partners on the threats and how they might manifest. The SIR system is among the first RCMP applications designed primarily for external non-law enforcement users who may apply for access to a secure RCMP Intelligence library. The secure web-based library offers unclassified to Protected B intelli-gence and information from various public sector departments, as well as other critical infrastructure stakeholders. The ultimate goal of CIIT’s efforts is to exchange intelligence and information that will support owners and operators in protecting their critical assets and enhance RCMP investigations.

For more information on the RCMP’s Suspicious Incident Reporting (SIR) System or to receive the monthly “CIIT Review”, please contact; Robert Zawerbny, RCMP FPCO-CIIT Criminal Intelligence Research Specialist Manufacturing sector at (613) 843-5133 or [email protected].


The Government of Canada has identified the following chemicals of concern as those which pose the greatest risk for the production of explosives: ammonium nitrate, hydrogen perox-ide (30% or greater), nitromethane, potassium chlorate, potassium per-chlorate, sodium chlo-rate, nitric acid (68% or greater), potassium ni-trate, sodium nitrate.


By: Alf Brown, OPCVC—Director of Communications

On Saturday June 22, a group of over 30 OPCVC members together with friends, family and colleagues together with over 45,000 fans enjoyed a great baseball game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Baltimore Orioles. It was an exciting game with the Jays winning in the 9th inning.

As a group we had the opportunity to present two out-going members of the executive with appreciation plaques between the 7th and 8th innings. Sgt. Mike Hinsperger, OPCVC Chair presented Al Stennett, Halton Regional Police with a plaque for all his efforts in establishing the committee and his work as the secretary. York Regional Police Chief Eric Jolliffe was on hand to make the presentation to Sgt. Jim Slykhuis of the appreciation plaque for all of Jim’s work on the committee.

This day was not only special for the OPCVC members, but for four other people. With the money col-lected, Cnst. Dal Gill and Sgt. Steve Burns were able to provide tickets to two fathers and their 4 year olds sons as a gift from the OPCVC. Thank you to Cnst. Gill and Sgt. Burns for their generosity, I am sure it was a very special day for those young boys.

10-7 - OPCVC SOCIAL ACTIVITIES

PLAY BALL!

DINNER CRUISE—August 30 Just sit right back and you can read a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from the Toronto Port aboard this tiny ship. The mate was a mighty sailor man, the skipper brave and sure, 18 OPCVC pas-sengers set sail one day for a three hour tour. A three hour dinner tour.

Apparently the weather started getting rough the tiny ship was tossed; if not for the courage of the fearless crew their dinner would be lost. The ship set ground back in the Port after a very enjoyable dinner cruise. Thanks to Dal Gill, for making the arrangements.


THE WALL OF SHAME

So I still have to measure at 3 equally spaced intervals? Submitted by: MTO North Region

Do the wheels angled like this make the vehicle more stable? Submitted by: MTO North Region

But officer I do have a clear view to the front, I just have to stick my head out the window! Submitted by: C. Kostyra, O.P.P.

If you need nice top soil next spring just follow this guy Submitted by: C. Kostyra, O.P.P.

Safety Chains? What safety chains? Submitted by: D. Smewing, O.P.P.

Broken U-bolt? Submitted by: T. Braun, O.P.P.


THE WALL OF SHAME

The driver thought it was running a little rougher than usual Submitted by: C. Kostyra, O.P.P.

Northern Ontario Tow Truck Submitted by: MTO North Region

Student found this during CMV course as a result of the training. Submitted by: C. Kostyra, O.P.P.

The driver was shown what that “clunking” sound was. Submitted by: M. Hinsperger—W.R.P.S

This is why we are out there! Submitted by: MTO North Region

Would a persons feet count as a sec-ond means of braking? Submitted by: C. Kostyra, O.P.P.


COMMERCIAL VEHICLE INSPECTION INITIATIVES

By: Alf Brown, OPCVC Director of Communications

Since the Spring, CVSA inspectors from various police services and the Ministry of Transportation have been very busy participating in a number of blitzes around the province. I am always impressed by the camaraderie displayed at these joint force initiatives. Together during these events we have inspected over 2300 vehicles, removed 740 unsafe vehicles or drivers from the road and laid over 1500 charges.

Good work everyone! We are making a difference and saving lives!

Toronto Police Service Location: Woodbine Race Track Date: April 8 - 9, 2013 Total Vehicles- 387 OOS- 149 Charges- 498

York Regional Police Location: Wonderland Date: May 1 - 2, 2013 Total Vehicles- 573 OOS- 198 Charges-397

Peel Regional Police Location: International Center Date: June 27 - 28, 2013 Total Vehicles- 190 OOS- 76 Charges -199

Waterloo Regional Police Location: Kitchener Auditorium Date: August 1 - 2, 2013 Total Vehicles - 243 OOS- 107 Charges -174

Caledon OPP Location: Orangeville / Bolton Date: Sept. 25 - 26, 2013 Total Vehicles – 197 OOS- 87 Charges - 170

Eastern Ontario Location: Kingston / Belleville Date: Sept. 26 - 27, 2013 Total Vehicles – 47 OOS– 21 Charges - 20

Operation Placard Location: Provincial Date: Sept. 24 - 25, 2013 Total Vehicles – 697 OOS– 102 Charges - 94


OACP TRAFFIC COMMITTEE - TOW WORKING GROUP

By: Sgt. Scott Parker, O.P.P., Highway Safety Bureau – Provincial Traffic Operations.

The OACP Tow working group is an OACP sub-committee that is tasked at looking at policing issues re-lated to the towing industry in Ontario. The major components of the OACP’s task to the tow working group are:

Recommendations on strategies to mitigate fraud

Recommend best practices to regulate the towing industry

Recommend best practice to enhance police training in relation towing situations (legislative im-pounds and collisions)

Fraud:

The opportunity for fraud to occur happens when an unsuspecting member for the public makes first contact with an individual offering a tow surface. Fraud in the context can occur in a number of ways, however insurance industry and towing industry participants to the Ministry of Finance Final Report of the Steering Committee Anti-Fraud Task Force. Examples of how fraud occurs in this context:

Staged collisions – tow truck drivers set up collisions, sometimes with feigned injuries defraud the insurance industry

Counseling – tow truck drivers counsel drivers who were in collisions to increase the amount of the claims submitted by the involved drivers by increasing the number of passengers in their vehi-cles or severity of injury, a percentage of the claim going to the tow truck driver

Kick-back – tow truck drivers receiving compensation from body shops, repair facilities, medical practitioners and medical providers such as RMTs, Chiropractic Clinics and Physiotherapy clinics for recommending and providing persons who have slight or feigned injuries.

These types of fraud are committed by organized groups who prey on the unsuspecting and explain that it is victimless as they are paying for their insurance in any event and have already paid for such services. The percentage paid back to the tow truck driver is never discussed.

Regulation:

The Ministry of Finance Final Report of the Steering Committee Anti-Fraud Task Force recommendation stated that the tow industry must be regulated to enhance road way safety and reduce fraud. The steering committee noted that in 2007 tow trucks in the Province of Ontario had a collision rate of 21%, compared to 4.7% for passenger vehicles and 1.4% for other commercial traffic. The steering commit-tee noted that there are no operating standards, training standards and mandatory training to operate a tow truck. The final report recommended that an Administrative Authority be created to regulate the towing industry, with the regulating body made up of 51% representation from the tow industry with the other 49% drawn from outside the towing industry including police, ministry, insurance and the Law Society of Upper Canada.

As a recommendation the tow working group submitted a position paper to OACP traffic committee out-lining that the regulation of the tow industry is required but can only be achieved if government takes a more active role and leadership. As such any regulating authority or body to oversee the tow industry must be drawn from 60% Government or other established authorities such as the Society of Profes-sional Engineers in Ontario and the minority drawn from the towing industry.>>


Cont’d from page 12

As a recommendation the tow working group submitted a position paper to OACP traffic committee out-lining that the regulation of the tow industry is required but can only be achieved if government takes a more active role and leadership. As such any regulating authority or body to oversee the tow industry must be drawn from 60% Government or other established authorities such as the Society of Profes-sional Engineers in Ontario and the minority drawn from the towing industry.

As part of the recommendations, the tow working group engaged on a number of activities to gain knowledge of practices in other areas and research into the current state of the tow industry. The tow sub-committee established a group to research and report back on legislation and towing practices in other jurisdictions, including but not limited to New York State, Florida, California, Ohio, the 9 other Provinces and 3 territories. This is designed to see what is occurring and if Ontario is unique to the prob-lems experienced with the towing industry. Unfortunately we are not and other jurisdictions share our frustration. There are some good practices, for example the State of Florida has a road ranger program. In that program an insurance company pays for towing companies to patrol state highways to assist stranded motorists and provide towing at collisions. The Province of Quebec on Highways 20 and 40 through Montreal has contracted towing service, exclusive for those areas with set service fee rates.

Another activity that the tow working group engaged in was to look at the fitness status of the tow truck fleet in Ontario. Relying on the assistance from the OPCVC, two tow truck blitz enforcement operations were executed on 24 July 2013 and 27 August 2013. The results are as follows:

Inspections Conducted - 108

Vehicles OOS - 51 (47%)

Plates Removed - 14

Charges - 86

As you can see from the above results a 47% out of service rate paints a dim picture of the state of the towing industry. This taken in conjunction with the towing industry’s collision rate it paints a clear picture of the state of the industry in the author’s opinion. What is the difference? Regulation. The transporta-tion industry is highly regulated, as such it has a culture of safety established. No so with the towing in-dustry. We must also look at the tow industry as but one part of the larger transportation industry. Just as a bus is a bus is a bus, a truck RGW, GVWR, actual weight inclusive of load exceeding 4500kg is a truck, is a truck, is a truck. To regulate the industry and improve roadway safety CVOR for tow trucks, thus amending section 16(1) of the HTA is a key recommendation to the OACP traffic committee to be taken forward to the MTO and MAG. Once CVOR is established for tow trucks the owners / operators are held accountable for the drivers and vehicles, this reducing the OOS rate and the collision rate.

Training

Regulating the industry, Provincially, would allow the Ontario Police College to instruct officers on how to work effectively with the tow industry in the area of enforcement, incident management and provide the officers in the Province with the tools required to prevent fraud. Best practices, the presence of organ-ized crime within the tow industry and fraud prevention are all topics that could be included to basic con-stable training at OPC. If Provincial regulation replaced the mix mash of by-laws dotting the Province there would be on standard for the industry to maintain and one standard for the police and MTO to en-force. In the meantime the Tow working group is looking at what are the best practices for police deal-ing with the tow industry and how those best practices can be instructed and communicated across the board to all police services in the Province.


CMV INSPECTIONS IN ONTARIO By: Warren Reynolds, Carrier Enforcement Program Office

. Since the trucking industry was deregulated in the mid-1980’s, Ontario’s commercial vehicle volumes have risen exponentially over the years as the industry continues to experience growth and change. Currently there are approximately 60,000 Ontario-based truck and bus companies operating over our highways with almost 5,000 new Ontario-based entrants into the CVOR program annually.

MTO has approximately 310 enforcement officers across the province and conducts more than 100,000 commercial vehicle inspections annually, but there are still an overwhelming numbers of commercial vehicles that fall under the radar….especially those trucks and buses on local deliveries that never travel beyond the city limits. MTO’s enforcement resources are directed toward provincial highways and by-pass routes around our inspection facilities with very limited enforcement within urban municipalities.

How can Police Help?

MTO’s Carrier Enforcement program encourages Ontario’s police services to become more involved in commercial vehicle inspections. Seventeen municipal and provincial police services have currently for-malized an agreement with MTO and have their officers trained and certified to conduct commercial ve-hicle inspections. At this time, 150 police officers have been CVSA certified and there’s a need for more.

What is the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA)?

CVSA is the premier North American safety association responsible for the administration and enforce-ment of motor carrier safety and hazardous material laws. This association has a specific mandate to ensure the application of its standards, policies, and procedures are adopted so that carriers experience consistency and uniformity of enforcement and inspections from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Why Be Certified?

To satisfy Ontario’s national and international commitments, MTO has the responsibility to ensure that any commercial vehicle inspec-tion conducted in Ontario is consistent with national and interna-tional CVSA standards.

But Ontario has taken the importance of the CVSA inspections one step further. Data collected from commercial vehicle inspections is now used to determine a carrier’s public safety rating which, in turn, may influence the marketability of the carrier with shippers, insur-ance and financial institutions, etc.

Training has become a key component toward ensuring the integrity of the commercial vehicle inspection. Ontario and the other Cana-dian jurisdictions have agreed to adopt a standardized national training package for the certification of CVSA inspectors.

Since MTO is the lead CVSA member in Ontario, MTO is responsible for ensuring that all CVSA stan-dards, policies and procedures are followed. For this reason, MTO has formalized agreements with pro-vincial, regional and municipal police services and provides training to selected police officers. >>


Continued from Page 20

CVSA Certification

To become certified, officers must attend an CVSA approved 3-week train-ing course, successfully complete the Part A and B written exams with a minimum of 80%, complete 32 supervised inspections with certified officer and receive a satisfactory evaluation from a MTO CVSA instructor.

Maintaining Certification

In order to maintain certification, officers must conduct a minimum of 32 inspections each calendar year and attend refresher training provided by MTO when training is made available.

Suspension of Certification

If an officer fails to maintain their certification, he or she will lose their status as a CVSA certified inspector, access to E-CVIR’s (RDC) will be re-voked and the officer must successfully challenge the written exams to re-gain their certification.

If an officer was on accommodations, leave or temporary assignment for more than 9 months during the calendar year, the officer will be allowed until April 1st of the following year to complete the previous year’s annual requirement.

Re-Certification

To become re-certified to conduct CVSA inspections, the of-ficer must successfully challenge the Ontario Part A and B re-certification written exams, complete 32 inspections with a certified officer and receive a satisfactory evaluation from a MTO CVSA instructor. Officers that are able to re-certify must attend an approved CVSA training course.

Getting Involved

For more information on how you or your police service can become an associate CVSA member and officer training, please contact:

Warren Reynolds, Head, Training and Development at (905) 704-2168 or email at [email protected].


Dangerous Goods Training - CFB Kingston By Alf Brown, Ministry of Transportation, Dangerous Goods Coordinator

During the week on May 6—10 the Ontario Provincial Police hosted a Transportation of Dangerous Goods Course at CFB Kingston. There were 22 students taking the course including officers from the Ontario Provincial Police, Halton Regional Police, Durham Regional Police and Ottawa Police Service. The course instructors were Hank Dubee and Alf Brown of the Ministry of Transportation. The course facilitator was Sgt. Scott Parker .

The Transportation of Dangerous Goods Course is one week long and includes a review of the following subjects:

Legislation and Authority – Provincial Act > Federal Act. > Federal Reg.

How to determine if a product is a dangerous good > Classes of Dangerous Goods

How to use Schedule 1 including understanding UN# >Shipping Name >Primary Class > Sub Class > Pkg Grp. > Compatibility Groups > Special Provisions > Emergency Response Assis-tance Plan (ERAP)> Limited Quantity / Explosive Quantity > Passenger Carrying Road Vehicle Restrictions

How to determine if an ERAP is required.

Dangerous Goods Documentation > Contents > Mixed loads > Location

Safety Marks > Small Means of Containment > Large Means of Containment

Training >Release Reporting Requirements > Reciprocal Agreements > Explosives Limit > Special Cases

At the conclusion of the course the students must complete a two part exam which they are required to obtain 80% in order to be designated as an Inspector under the Dangerous Goods Transportation Act.

All of the students worked very hard throughout the week and were successful. They have all been des-ignated as Dangerous Goods Inspectors by the Minister of Transportation.



This fall I had the opportunity to travel up to the Northwest Terri-tories to teach a “Transportation of Dangerous Goods” course to some of their new Territorial Department of Transportation High-way Patrol Officers. Also participating in the class was an officer from Nunavut, officers with the NWT Department of Environment and Natural Resources, as well as a Constable from the local RCMP Detachment.

The course was conducted in Hay River, which is at the south end of Great Slave Lake, it is a fairly small community to our standards. My first clue that it was a small was when two strangers asked me if they could catch a ride with me in the cab to the hotel. The second clue was that there was not a Tim Horton's in the town!! I didn’t know there was a town in Canada without one!

Those of you who have taken the dangerous goods course in Ontario, know that all the jurisdictions in Canada have adopted the regulations made under the federal Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act. The only changes that were required to the lesson plan were replacing the content dealing with On-tario’s Dangerous Goods Transportation Act with the similar requirements and references from the NWT Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act.

I had an opportunity to go out to the nearby inspection station which was located in Enterprise about 35 km. outside of hay River. The in-spection station was similar to the ones we have other than it was a ‘two-way” station. All north-bound vehicles were required to enter the inspection station when it was open but only the loaded south-bound vehicles were required to enter the inspection station.

They also had a very nice CVSA Inspection shelter which is equipped with concrete ramps, very sufficient lighting and a small heated office. The building is quite large (140’ Long) and they can fit a “Rockie Moun-tain Double” inside . The officers are looking forward to using it this winter.

Dangerous Goods Training in the NWT


By: Cathy King, Ministry of Transportation

A Canada/U.S. Medical Reciprocity Agreement for Commercial Drivers, also referred to as “W” Code is being implemented beginning late May 2013. This Agreement will prohibit Canadian commercial drivers with a W Code on their driver’s licence from operating commercial vehicles in the U.S. Ontario has been working with CCMTA since 1998 to implement this reciprocal Agreement.

The medical conditions prohibiting operating commercially in the U.S. are:

hearing impairment

monocular vision

diabetes requiring insulin or

drivers having a history of epilepsy/seizures.

In addition, commercial drivers who have not filed a medical report and were downgraded as a result, will have a W Code added to their driver’s licence record and card.

Approximately 40,000 replacement drivers licence cards will be sent to affected drivers. All Canadian and U.S. jurisdictions must be in compliance with the Agreement by January 2014.

Drivers with a Code W on their licence card may operate a commercial vehicle in Canada or operate a Class G vehicle in Canada or the US.

A “W” code will be displayed in the “Rest/Cond” field on the front of the card.

The associated descriptor shown on the back of the card, in the “Restrictions/Conditions” field, will dis-play “Comm Veh CA/Véhic. comm. CA”.

A Code V is being implemented by the U.S. which will be displayed on all U.S. driver licences. The Code V indicates to police that these U.S. drivers have medical conditions which prohibit them from operating a commercial vehicle in Canada.

This program aims to increase road safety and reduce the risk of unfit drivers operating on our roads.

Canada/U.S. Medical Reciprocity Agreement for Commercial Drivers - W Code


My Last Blitz!

Page 19

By: Sgt. Jim Slykhuis (Retired), York Regional Police

On May 1st and 2nd 2013 the weather Gods were looking down from above and the drivers of commercial vehicles in Vaughan were scared.

It was time for the 9th annual York Regional Police/Ministry of Transporta-tion Canada’s Wonderland Commercial Motor Vehicle Blitz.

Day one started bright and sunny and with a big surprise for myself as I was presented with a recognition plaque by Chief Eric Jolliffe and Alf Brown from the MTO. My bosses had managed to keep the entire event a surprise and they even arranged for my family, including my parents, to be present. To say that I was totally shocked would be understate-ment. After the festivities were completed we got down to business. We’ve always had a long line of trucks waiting to be inspected. This year, that didn’t happen. In fact, inspectors were actually waiting for

trucks. After looking around it was evident there were more inspectors this year than at previous blitzes. Although things seemed to move slowly, by day’s end we had inspected almost 300 trucks.

Day two was again sunny and warm. The inspections started full force and continued at a steady pace until 1p.m. After tabulating the final numbers, a new record was set for this two- day blitz. In total 573 trucks were inspected, 198 were taken out of service and 397 charges were issued.

As this was my last Wonderland Blitz, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank some very special people. John Douglas from the Ministry of Transportation, Carrier Enforcement Branch, York Office, has been my invaluable partner in assisting me to organize this annual event and without his help, it just would have not happened. I would also like to thank all of the agencies that attended to make this the largest and most successful blitz ever. Also, my sincere thanks to the following:Ministry of Transporta-tion, Ministry of Environment, Ontario Provincial Police, Toronto Police, Halton Regional Police, Water-loo Regional Police, Barrie Police, Guelph Police, Peel Regional Police, and Wikwemikong Tribal Police. Over the years, I have been involved in blitzes and many other similar Traffic Safety events and as a result, I have come to personally know most of the officers that attend. I have been fortunate in my career to call many of you friends. Although there have been, and I am sure will continue to be, some snags along the way, it is only because each and every one of you is dedicated and committed to mak-ing Ontario roads the safest anywhere, that we succeed. You should all take extreme pride in the work you do and remember that we can make a difference. Although I will miss my job (a little) when I re-tire, it will be the people that I will miss the most.

Take care and be safe.

Jim Slykhuis York Regional Police – (Retired)


By: Amy Palmer, Carrier Safety Policy Office, MTO

The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is implementing phase two of the New Entrant Education and Evaluation Program (NEEEP) for new truck and bus operators to improve road safety.

NEEEP has three components:

1. Education – development of a Commercial Vehicles Operators’ Safety manual and practice test con-taining basic information regarding Ontario’s safety laws, appropriate safety management practices and self-governance practices (currently available online).

2. CVOR test – operators must demonstrate knowledge of Ontario’s safety laws by completing a writ-ten test as a prerequisite to obtaining a Commercial Vehicle Operators’ Registration (CVOR) certifi-cate (October 1, 2013).

3. Evaluation – operators must undergo a review of their applied safety management and remediation practices by completing an evaluation of their records within the first 18 months of operation (TBD).

The Highway Traffic Act Regulation 424/97 “Commercial Vehicle Operators’ Information” has been amended to re-quire new truck and bus operators to demonstrate knowl-edge of Ontario’s safety laws by completing the CVOR test prior to obtaining a CVOR Certificate.

The CVOR test is a one-time requirement to be completed within six months of the ministry receiving the CVOR appli-cation. Tests are to be completed at one of the DriveTest Centres located across Ontario at a cost of $32 per test, or subsequent retest. The CVOR test is to be completed by the sole proprietor, partner, corporate officer or director.

Test questions will be based on the content contained in the Commercial Vehicle Operators’ Safety Manual.

The following operators are exempt from NEEEP:

• An operator renewing a CVOR certificate,

• An operator that held a valid CVOR certificate at any time within the previous three years, and

• An operator whose principal place of business is not in Ontario.

For more information contact:

Amy Palmer Team Lead | Carrier Safety Enforcement Branch Ministry of Transportation | 905-704-2963 [email protected]

New Entrant Education and Evaluation


Wheel Off Training Seminar By: PC Cory Kostyra - OPP HSD CMV Team

On May 16, 2013, the OPCVC ran a wheel off investigation training seminar. The seminar was a suc-cess and was attended by over 100 officers from across the province from many policing agencies and the MTO.

The seminar was made up of four different components. Robert Monster, an engineer from the MTO, spoke about Commercial Vehicle Wheel Separations including causations, statistical information, the history of some major occurrences and the current legislation relating to wheel separations.

Jeffery Turner, another engineer from the MTO, spoke about current issues relating to non CMV wheel separations. Prior to the training day Jeffery researched and gathered vital information in relation to industry's best practices, case studies and causations which were backed up statistically. The OPP Highway Safety Division in the GTA began collecting statistical information in relation to non CMV wheel separations in January of 2013. As a result of the high number of incidents, the OPP is working with the MTO, media partners and public industry to plan an educational awareness program.

John Mustard, a metallurgist from the CFS, went over some case studies and discussed component failures. John provided a very insightful presentation on causations and the investigative roles of the CFS. Many of the officers commented on how useful some of the terminology was that John used which they were going to incorporate in their report writing.

The fourth component of the day involved a "Hands On" session where all officers were given the op-portunity to remove and re install a set of dual wheels. Certified wheel installers taught officers the proper way to Re and Re the wheels and were there to assist and answer questions as needed. Robert Monster and Jeffery Turner also went by the garage and got their hands dirty as well. One of the experiments done at the garage was to find out how effective checking fastener torque was by hand pressure. They determined that officers were only able to "spin off" the lug nuts at torques around 10 ft lbs or less.

I would like to thank the following for going the extra mile to help make this day possible: the OPCVC, OPP HSD, Toronto Police, MTO, CFS, YRPS, Lewis Motors, Holiday Inn and Mapleview Community Church.


CMV Enforcement For Frontline Officers By: Alf Brown, OPCVC Executive, Ministry of Transportation

During the Spring OPCVC meeting a decision was made to have a committee review the current “Commercial Vehicle Enforcement for Frontline Officers” course to see if it could be revised. The course has been very successful and has been used to provide training to hundreds of police officers over the past several years.

A committee was formed which included Dale Smewing - OPP, Steven Szabo - OPP, Mike Hinsperger - WRPS, Pat Martin - HRPS, Dal Gill - TPS, and Alf Brown - MTO. The committee was given the respon-sibility of reviewing and updating the course content.

Throughout the summer the committee worked on updating the course and in September the OPCVC Executive approved the new course material.

The new course includes the following topics:

Commercial Vehicle Registration

Commercial Vehicle - Driver Licence Classes

C.V.O.R.

Hours of Service

Daily Inspection Requirements

Annual Inspection Requirements

Commercial Vehicle Requirements

Municipal By-laws

Dangerous Goods Incidents

Officer Authority

Officer Safety

Enforcement Options

The course will remain three days long consisting 1 1/2 days in the classroom and 1 1/2 days “on the road” with instructors where the students can apply what they learned in the class under the supervi-sion of the instructors and CVSA certified officers.

Police officers participating in the course will receive a reference book entitled “The ABC’s of Commer-cial Vehicle Enforcement. The book provides information and references that will assist officers when they encounter commercial motor vehicles.

Any police service interested in hosting a course should contact Cnst. Dale Smewing - [email protected] or Sgt. Mike Hinsperger - [email protected].


By: Sgt. Scott Parker, Ontario Provincial Police

I had the opportunity to attend the 2013 CVSA conference this year in Denver, Colorado and found it to be a great learning experience. Ontario had an impressive showing from the MTO who sent 6 members to the conference. I am finally coming to understand why policies are written and I am in a better posi-tion to answer question from other officer and better able to explain the why to commissioned officers.

As you know there are 5 jurisdictions that make up the CVSA, Associate members and local members. Region 1 is basically the north East US, Region 2 is south east and central US, Region 3 is central US, Region 4 is West US, Region 5 is Canada.

The officers and industry representatives present were addressed by the policy makers for US, Canada and Mexico. The Hon. Anne S. Ferro of FMCSA, Darren Christie of CCMTA & CRA and Federico D. Zu-loogo of Mexico all addressed the attendees with the direction each country intends to take regarding road safety and commercial vehicles. From the speeches made by Anne Ferro and Darren Christie I ex-pect to see more harmonization of regulations between the US and Canada. Keep this in mind because I will come back to this point.

The local membership was represented largely by the state of Texas. New York State was represented by Long Island PD and the state of Missouri was represented by St. Louis PD, who by the way with 5 members do over 1000 level one inspections per year, I was the only canuck at the table and I guess I looked out of place with my hockey stick and skates.

Each day of the conference was occupied with Regional business and the committees. The committee meetings are open and you do not have to be sitting at the table to speak. You can not vote, the com-mittee members get to vote but submissions can be made by anyone in attendance. The committees are:

Driver-Traffic Enforcement, Hazardous Materials, Passenger Carrier, Program Initiatives, Size and weight, Training and Vehicle.

I was able to attend the Driver- Traffic Enforcement, Hazardous Materials and Vehicle committee meet-ings. So what happens at a committee meeting? In simple terms, decisions are made. The committees have input from industry, officers, engineers and can strike sub committees to look at various subjects. Those sub committees report back to the committee on their findings. Once debate is over a vote is taken on a motion and then that motion, if carried goes forward to the executive. If ratified there no you have a decision on what is a defect, what is out of service. The people who vote and sit on the committee are drawn from each jurisdiction, thus officers actually make the decisions on what becomes out of service with industry input into the decision.

Region 5, Canada, has representation in the committees, however, as you can see the US has far greater input into decisions as they comprise 4 regions. At the committee level each representative has a vote but input prior to a vote can be made by anyone in attendance.

The trade show was very informative and a great aspect to the conference. What is displayed is equip-ment and materials for both industry and enforcement. The items displayed focused on investigation, scales, speed enforcement, cargo securement and interdiction. One of the interdiction concerns south of the border is human smuggling which is a growing concern. The aim in that part is to have drivers pay special attention in truck stops and report suspicious activity. >>

2013 CVSA Annual Conference & Exhibition


Cont’d from Page 23

Going back to my point of harmonization of regulations between Canada and the United States it is more important now than ever to understand and pay attention to the US as what is happening there is coming our way. This is also why we need more Canadian participants in CVSA. Transport Canada and to a lesser degree CCMTA is moving to harmonize our regulations to the US. Some of the legislation in the US is good, as is ours. Some of the US regulations are not as good as what we have here in terms of road safety. It is clear that the decisions on what regulation will be harmonized will be based on in-dustry and not road safety. It is important to understand the US regulations and be able to advise the OACP, municipalities and others what the potential impacts of harmonization of regulations will be. One example of this will be the proposed amendment to our TDGA regulations around placarding. Currently as we know placards must be removed once the danger posed by the dangerous goods in transit is di-minished due to quantity. No so in the US. In the US placards must be maintained as long as the haz-ardous material is still present in any quantity as per CFR 49. So if adopted we could be shutting down highways and evacuating communities because a truck delivering paint had one litre left on board.

Because of harmonization we must be at the table to have input and understand what is happening. Thus the best way to do this is for greater Canadian representation at the local membership level with CVSA. One of the arguments put forward in objection of the O.P.P. becoming a local member of CVSA is that commercial motor vehicle enforcement policy is not our responsibility. I countered with CMV inves-tigation, interdiction, collision investigation and community protection are. The best way for a munici-pality to have a say into polices governing the transportation industry moving over municipal roads is to be a local member of CVSA. You have to look no farther than to Quebec to see how quickly the trans-portation industry (in this case rail) can destroy a community. This is where the decisions are made on policy governing CMV traffic through your communities. The question to ask your commands and politi-cians is do they want these decisions being made for us south of the border or do we want to have a strong voice and input to these decisions.

The next annual CVSA conference is in Buffalo NY, during the week of Sept. 14, 2014. Transportation costs will be a minimum and I would like to see a lot more Canucks at the table.

Colorado State Police—Honour Guard


Waterloo Regional Police Service is hosting a 3 day Pipeline Convoy Criminal Interdiction Course. This course is also recognized by FMCSA DIAP in the USA as well.

Date: October 28th – 30th

Location: Waterloo

To register of for more information contact:

S/Sgt Joanne Van Deursen 519-653-7700 ext 8825 or [email protected]

The OPP East Region Highway Enforcement Team is hosting the 2013 Advanced Highway En-forcement Conference. See advertisement on Page 26

Members of Humber College's Transportation Training Centre were recognized recently for their contin-ued commitment and support of initia-tives laid out by the Ontario Police Com-mercial Motor Vehicle Committee.

The committee is a joint venture between police services and the Ministry of Trans-portation that support and enforce trans-portation regulations and safety compli-ance, while educating new drivers on cur-rent issues in the industry.

"The Humber College Transportation Training Centre has been fantastic in sup-porting these goals," said Police Consta-ble Dalbinder Gill, a member of the On-tario Police Commercial Motor Vehicle Committee. "It's been mutually beneficial in that we can inform Humber students on what we expect from them, while we invite instructors to come in to look at our safety initiatives."

Karen Tavener, Director of Humber's Transportation Training Centre, believes that the partnership di-rectly contributes to road safety by enhancing the new driver training experience.

"Humber has one of the largest and most reputable commercial driver training programs in the province and it has been our honour to work with the Ontario Police Commercial Motor Vehicle Committee in a collaborative effort to educate and inform our students of their responsibilities as commercial drivers," said Tavener.

L - R - Rob Jackson, Karen Tavener, Darcy Groff, Dal Gill

OPCVC Recognizes Humber College

If you would like more information or are interested in joining the OPCVC you may contact any one of the members of the executive for more information.


Pat Martin - [email protected]



“The Word on the Street”

Editorial Staff


NEXT OPCVC MEETING Date: October 21, 2013 Time: 9:00 am Location: Toronto Police Traffic Services 9 Hanna Rd., Toronto Contact: Cnst. Dal Gill - [email protected]

Halton Regional Police will be hosting the 2013 Fall Commercial Vehicle Safety Initiative on October 16th and 17th, , at the Mohawk Racetrack located at:

9430 Guelph Line Road, Campbellville

Contact: P.C Pat Martin ([email protected])

UPCOMING JOINT FORCES INITIATIVES

“T W S ”


WINTER / SPRING 2014


Well the numbers are all in for 2013 and once again my hat

goes off to the men and women who are out there con‐

duc ng inspec ons on commercial motor vehicles. Last

year together we (yes I did some inspec ons) inspected

over 110,000 commercial vehicles. Over 30,000 vehicles

were placed out‐of‐service. For those who are reading this

newsle er and are not CVSA Cer fied, an out‐of‐service condi on means that

the vehicle has to be repaired prior to it leaving or it has to be towed away. The

bo om line Out‐of‐Service means the vehicle is unsafe! You will observe from

the table below that the OOS Rate increased almost 4% over 2012. One must

keep in mind that for the most part these are targeted inspec ons, in other

words officers are screening vehicles and if they observe defects will complete a

more thorough inspec on. However, this is clear evidence that we need to con‐

nue to be diligent and ensure that we are doing our part to make our highways

safer by conduc ng these valuable inspec ons.

The data from the inspec ons conducted in 2013 also shows a slight increase in

the charge rate over the previous years. In 2013, over 28,000 inspec ons re‐

sulted in at least one charge being laid. I have included a table showing the

types of charges that were laid as a result of these inspec ons on Page 16 of the

newsle er. You will see that almost 6,000 charges were laid for the trip inspec‐

on viola ons. These viola ons would include failing to conduct the inspec on,

failing to document the inspec on or failing to have the appropriate “schedule”

in the vehicle. It is impera ve that we con nue to hold both the drivers and the

operators accountable, when they are not fulfilling their responsibili es with

respect to inspec ng their vehicle before opera ng it on our highways.

Finally thanks to all of the officers conduc ng these inspec ons, you are out

there in all kinds of weather condi ons and you are making a difference! Keep

up the good work and I believe Ontario will have the safest roads in the world

some day soon!

Looking Back at 2013 2013 Inspection Results *

110,156 Inspections

30,271 Placed OOS

27.5 % OOS Rate

28,436 Charged

25.8 % Charge Rate

Top 5 Violations

Brake Systems

Trip Inspection

Lighting Systems

Hours of Service

Load Security

Inside this issue:

Chairs Message 2

Wheel Offs 3

Saved by the Belt 4

Wall of Shame 8-9

Seatbelts 14

WRPS—Traffic 17

Working Safely 19


Goodbye from Alf 24

EDITION #5

Year Insp. Qty. OOS Qty. OOS % Charge Laid Qty. Charge %

2010 110,523 25,028 22.6% 21,783 19.7%

2011 107,153 26,581 24.8% 23,235 21.7%

2012 102,808 24,224 23.6% 24,586 23.9%

2013 110,145 30,266 27.5% 28,429 25.8%


Message from the OPCVC Chair By: Sgt. Mike Hinsperger, Waterloo Regional Police

As I write this, I am amazed that we are already at full speed in preparation for busy 2014 season of CMV enforcement initiatives, frontline training courses around the province, pending legislative changes within the Highway Traffic Act, and upcoming outreach sessions with industry stakeholders. It is truly an honor to chair a committee as committed, energetic, and compatible in partner-ships as the current OPCVC, and especially the passionate execu-tive members I have the privilege to serve with.

Having recently met with the executive, there is great progress being made on numerous fronts. Let’s start with the Frontline Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Course. The final version is now complete and several courses are al-ready scheduled around Ontario. Previous courses have been highly sought by uniformed officers, and I expect that will only increase as this training becomes more widely known provincially. We currently have 14 instructors and are going to maintain that number for this year until we get a better idea of how many courses will be requested provincially. We are also working on standardizing an instructor certification process as more instructors are required.

We have numerous enforcement initiatives coming up in Toronto, York, Peel, Waterloo, Caledon, and Hal-ton. There has been interest in some others as well. I will send out the dates to the entire committee as those dates are confirmed. With respect to some of the outreach sessions, we have been in contact with the OTA, Fleet Safety Counsel, and other industry stakeholders to build stronger partnerships for in-creased road safety on our highways through education of drivers and mechanics within the transporta-tion industry. So far these outreach sessions have been received very well and we continue to further our inroads in that direction.

It was proposed at our last executive meeting to consider utilizing social media channels to provide infor-mation to officers and industry partners through these channels. We would also like to experiment with Twitter to post some of the blitz results after large enforcement initiatives to give industry and media a better idea of what the main defects are we are finding, and provide a forum for questions to be asked by the public. We will be requesting an OPCVC web page available on the OACP Traffic Committee site on which we can announce dates of training, joint forces initiatives as well as other important dates. This will also be where we post issues of our newsletter “The Word on The Street”.

As you can see we have an exciting and very busy 2014 year ahead and with the valued partnerships of the OPCVC, MTO, and the transportation industry stakeholders we can further the great progress together striving to make Ontario’s highways the safest in the world.

Stay safe,

Mike


By Bob Lickers, Carrier Enforcement Program Office

There are about 20,000 reasons to not stop and report that a commercial motor vehicle was involved with a wheel separation. One of my reservations continues to be; what is the true number of wheel separa-tions? In 2012, our office received 99 wheel separation reports from police and MTO enforcement offic-ers. That number climbed to 148 in 2013! 109 wheel separations were caused by fastener failure. That is a number that has not been recorded since 1998. While it is true there have been improvements in re-porting, I still believe that a number of wheel separations go un-reported.

When I receive a report, I will review the information for accuracy and if edits are required, ask the of-ficer to make the suggested edits. I then send the details to the Carrier Safety and Investigations Office, and Facility Audit Administrators for operator review. Enforcement action could include auditing an opera-tor or in worse case offenders, arranging for an interview with our Deputy Registrar to determine if the operator is able to take corrective action to avoid further sanctions. My role doesn’t stop there, I am able to provide advice and I also keep briefing notes current for senior managers.

As we continue to train enforcement officers and police officers in commercial vehicle safety, I am hopeful that commercial vehicle operators continue to make improvements in their commitment to road user safe-ty. As long as the wheel is dependent on human skills for proper installation, daily monitoring and routine maintenance, we need to be diligent in our inspections as officers to prevent tragedies from affecting On-tario lives.

Wheel Separation Observations 2014

Commercial Vehicle Impounds - 2013 By: Sam Hardie, Carrier Enforcement Program Office

In 2013 the number of impounds found was the highest number since 2005. Officers at the now eighteen CVIP locations impounded 143 vehicles.

From 2006 until 2012 the average number of impounds per year was 91. Two factors that helped in-crease the number of impounds were having Sarnia TIS, King TIS and Gananoque TIS as CVIP locations for the full calendar year. The second was the addition of inoperative brakes as a defect that could form part of a critical defect.

So far in 2014 the number of vehicles impounded remains higher than reflected in the 2006-2012 average with 48 impounds up to the 9th of March.

February 2014 had 25 impounds which was the highest monthly total since April 2004.


Saved By The Belt By: Alf Brown, Ministry of Transportation

In the fall of 2011 the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) conducted state-of-the-art crash testing, in partnership with Transport Canada, to determine if the installation and location of police equipment in police cruisers affects the safe-ty of officers and other vehicle occupants.

The crash testing involved fully-equipped police cruisers with crash test dummies equipped as police of-ficers. The OPP measured occupant interaction with operational and personal equipment, such as radi-os, radar mounts, cell phones, and duty bags during a major collision and also tested the impact of cruis-er modifications on vehicle safety features.

The OPP tested vehicles equipped with third party equipment specific to the OPP. The results were based on equipment installed in OPP cruisers by OPP staff, following guidelines developed specifically for the OPP’s needs.

The results revealed that the OPP vehicle modifications do not affect or jeopardize the safety of the cruiser occupants; however, the results did substantiate concerns about rate of speed, use of seatbelts and the importance of securing personal items in cruisers.

Using a seat belt is the single most effective way to reduce the chance of injury or death in a motor vehicle collision. Since seat belts were made mandatory, the number of peo-ple killed and injured in collisions in Ontario has steadily dropped. Over 92 percent of Ontarians wear their seat belt regularly. It's easy to see the difference wearing a seat belt makes — for every one percent increase in seat belt use five lives are saved.

Police officers have been primarily responsible for elevating the use of seat belts by Ontarians; you have educated in various ways those whom you have sworn to serve and pro-tect and have enforced against violations consistently dur-

ing your patrols, as well as during specific seat belt campaigns. But unfortunately, you have not always practiced what you preach.

There are many stories of police or enforcement officers that survive major collisions only because they were wearing their seatbelt. Unfortunately, there are also many stories of police who did not survive because they were not wearing their seatbelt.

The impact of the death of—or the serious injury to—an officer is devastating to fellow officers and their service as a whole; even more tragic is when this death or serious injury could have been averted, had the officer been wearing a seat belt.

Please remember to BUCKLE UP!


ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

“Let Me Guess …

Licence & Registration”

FOR SALE - PICK-UP WITH 5TH WHEEL - EXCELLENT GAS MILEAGE

IT MAY AS WELL SAY … PLEASE PULL ME OVER!


Operation—Safe Driver By: Alf Brown, Carrier Enforcement Program Office Each year unsafe and aggressive driving contributes to killing approxi-mately 36,000 people on North American roadways. Of these deaths, approximately 4,000 of them are related to crashes between passenger vehicles and large trucks and buses — this is more deaths than a 737 airplane crashing every two weeks, or 26 in a year! These tragic stories, each one preventable, fill our news media and affect us all. During the week of October 19-25, 2014, organizations across North America are uniting to put a foot down on preventing these tragic deaths and educate all drivers about the risks of aggressive driving as well to provide a few tips for being safer on the road. Called “Operation Safe Driver,” a consortium of government agencies, law enforcement and industry across North America are partnering to stop, ticket and educate aggressive and distracted drivers. This pro-gram aims to educate all motorists on the risks involved with aggressive and distracted driving by, in and around large trucks and buses and stigmatize aggressive driving behavior on the roads. During Operation Safe Driver, police and the MTO will target aggressive and fatigued truck and bus drivers, as well as car drivers operating unsafely around them. Ultimately, the key to driving around large trucks and buses is to share the road responsibly. Drivers of passenger vehicles should understand how these large, commercial vehicles operate and these vehicles’ limitations. In particular, for those crashes between large trucks and cars, the majority of deaths are the occupants of the passenger vehicle. Before jumping to conclusions it is important to note that both car and truck drivers are to blame. In crashes between cars and large trucks where someone dies, it is the result of driver error 88 percent of the time — the passenger vehicle driver, the truck driver, or both. Speed is also a primary factor in aggressive driving and in nearly one-third of all fatal crashes. The probability of death and debilitating injury grows with impacts at higher speeds — doubling for every 10 mph over 50 mph that a vehicle travels. Unfortunately, aggressive driving is highly contagious. Watching another driver’s offensive road man-ners, or seeing outrageous violations of the law go unenforced can ignite your temper and convince you that you too can drive with impunity. But driving with equal aggression only exacerbates the problem, creating a domino effect, passing from car to car and truck to bus as vehicles travel down the road. Dis-tracted driving is a growing problem and one which needs to be defeated. In 2010, 3092 people were killed in crashes involving a distracted driver and an estimated additional 416,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving a distracted driver. In particular, text messaging creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted. So lets join together for this initiative and tackle this problem. More information will be coming out on this important initiative.


By: Hank Dubee, Ministry of Transportation

I received a call while in court this February from the OPP looking for some guidance with a vehicle stop. Apparently the OPP communica-tion centre was receiving numerous calls and complaints about a vehi-cle combination operating on Highway 400. This wasn’t a normal vehi-cle but a farm tractor travelling at 40kmph in the middle of a snow storm on Hwy 400 at Mapleview Drive in Barrie. The farm tractor was towing a convertor dolly with a flatbed semi-trailer loaded with hay go-ing from a farm in North Bay, Ontario to a farm in Stratford Ontar-io. Just a short distance right? Can you imagine? Yes they walk among us.

The officer was wondering what charges he could lay. He was not aware that there is a specific regulation prohibiting farm tractors on King’s highways. I pointed him in the right direction to lay Regulation 609 Section 1 and felt that a second charge of Careless Driving under the HTA would apply as well. This would be an interesting trial if it came to court as the crown could not plead this one down to following too close or fail to drive in marked lane. The wordings are below for both charges.

Regulation 609

1. (1) No person shall operate or ride the following on those parts of the King’s Highway described in Schedule 1:

1. A farm tractor

Careless Driving

130. Every person is guilty of the offence of driving carelessly who drives a vehicle or street car on a highway without due care and attention or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the highway and on conviction is liable to a fine of not less than $400 and not more than $2,000 or to im-prisonment for a term of not more than six months, or to both, and in addition his or her licence or per-mit may be suspended for a period of not more than two years.

Just Another Day in Traffic Enforcement

Follow OPCVC on Twitter

OPCVC is now on Twitter @OPCVC, thanks to Pat Martin from Halton Re-gional Police, and Vice Chair of OPCVC. If you have anything you think would be of interest for OPCVC to “tweet” out, send it to our email [email protected] , and Pat will tweet it out.


THE WALL OF SHAME

Potential disaster prevented!

Why? Because that could really result is some “distracted driving”

Insecure Load Broken main leaf

Detached semi-trailer Another insecure load


THE WALL OF SHAME

Insecure Load in a secure load? Would have thought the driver would have found this during his circle check!

Brake Chamber or what is left of it.

Contaminated Brakes

Driver Surname: Green, Given 1: Red Loose wheels = broken fasteners


Roadcheck 2013 By: Alf Brown, Carrier Enforcement Program Office

Commercial vehicle inspectors across Ontario participate in this annual 72 hour blitz held across North America. During Road-check 2013, 73,023 truck and bus inspections were conducted. Of those inspections 47,771 were Level 1 inspections which is a full mechanical inspection of the vehicle and an inspection of the driver including drivers licence and hours of service records.

Of the Level 1 inspections conducted, 24.1% resulted in the ve-hicle being placed Out-of-Service (OOS). Of the 71,630 drivers that were inspected during this initiative 4.3% were found with OOS violations.

Roadcheck 2013 included special emphasis on motorcoach safety, including traffic enforcement, and proper cargo securement. Jurisdictions inspected a total of 825 motorcoaches. The International Asso-ciation of Chiefs of Police was also requested to support this initiative through the enforcement of traffic safety laws on bus and motorcoach drivers. Inspectors also watched for improperly secured loads such as inadequate number of tiedowns, damaged webbing or chain, missing blocking and bracing and other load securement violations.

Brake defects always seem to be the most common OOS defect and this past year was no different. Brake defects accounted for 49.6% of vehicle OOS violations including brakes not properly adjusted (19.5%) and other brake system defects (30.1%). Lighting defects was the next most common OOS defect (12.6%), followed by insecure loads (11.7%) and tires and wheels (10.1%).

As far as driver OOS defects hours of service violations was the highest at 51.8% of all OOS defects, fol-lowed by false logs (13.2%), driving while disqualified (10.2%) and driving while suspended (5.2%).

Roadcheck 2014 will be held June 3, 4 and 5th at various locations across the province. All CVSA certified inspectors are invited to participate. For more information contact Alf Brown at [email protected] or Bob Lickers at [email protected].

OPP Auxiliary Constable Mackay was presented with an appreciation plaque during the Fall 2013 OPCVC meeting by Chair Sgt. Mike Hinsperger for her dedication and commitment in providing assistance during the many Commercial Vehicle Initiatives over the past several years.

Congratulations Aux. Constable Mackay for a job well done! The OPCVC appreciates your efforts!

Special Recognition

It is that time of year again and the April 1, 2014 Out-of-Service Criteria is coming out. Refresher training is cur-rently being scheduled in your regions at a location near you! This is a mandatory one-day course and you will be given your new CVSA Handbook as well as updates to your CMVI manual and Bus Manual.

The most significant change to the OOS criteria is the addition of Driveline/Driveshaft criteria. There will be an inspection bulletin issued and information related to the inspection process as well. This criterion is intended to help elim-inate situations like the picture below.

Due to requests from the field, there will also be a 2-hour training segment related to Electronic On-Board Recording Devices (EOBRs). This training will provide information on several different types of EOBRs and how they operate. The training package will include vide-os and guidance on the options related to each individual unit. This training package and the videos will be posted to the Sharepoint Site for officers to refer to once the training is completed.

CVSA Refresher Training



Mirrors

The Forgotten Inspection Item

By: K. Wirachowsky, Carrier Enforcement Program Office

Commercial motor vehicle inspections require both critical and non-critical inspection items to be exam-ined for compliance with the regulation. It is imperative that officers are familiar with all the regulatory requirements of the vehicle that is being inspected.

There are two differences between critical and non-critical inspection items. Critical inspection items may be placed out-of-service (OOS) as per the North American Out-of-Service Criteria and only viola-tions of these critical inspection items (regardless of whether the condition is OOS) will prevent the ve-hicle from being issued with a CVSA decal.

However, while conducting vehicle inspections it is important to inspect both the critical and non-critical inspection items as both are important to the safety of the public. Due to non-critical inspection items not resulting in an OOS condition, often times they are overlooked. Here is a list of non-critical inspec-tion items that must be inspected when conducting the various levels of CVSA inspections.

Horn Clearance Lamps

Mirrors Identification Lamps

Windshield Side Marker Lamps

Windshield Washers Licence Plate Lights

Seatbelt Rear Impact Guard

Seats Landing Gear

Mud Flaps Retro-reflective Tape

Body (excluding Van Trailers) Bumpers

The intent of this article is to focus on mirrors. There have been a several instances over the past year of pedestrians or cyclists being seriously injured or killed by large trucks because the truck driver did not see the person. Visibility around trucks is very restricted particularly on the right side of the vehicle. Even with properly maintained mirrors, there is a “no-zone” area with large commercial motor vehicles where a driver is unable to see what is around the vehicle.

Therefore, it is imperative that officers ensure that required mirrors are present and well maintained to assist in ensuring that the “no-zone” is as small as possible. >>


Continued from Page 12

The Highway Traffic Act (HTA), Section 66(1)(b) requires that the mirror or mirrors must be placed in such a position as to afford the driver a clearly reflected view of the roadway in the rear, or of any vehicle approaching from the rear. In the case of a large commercial motor vehicle, this would require a rear view mirror on both the left and right side of the vehicle.

Regulation 611, Schedule 1 prescribes that no required mirror is missing, cracked, broken or have any significant reduction in reflecting surface caused by deterioration of the silvering; and in the case of a motor vehicle where there is no rear window, or the view through the rear window is re-stricted in such a way as not to afford a driver a clear view to the rear of the motor vehicle, the outside rear view mirror or mirrors shall not be missing and each mirror must maintain a set adjustment;.

Regulation 199/07, Schedule 1 requires that a driver inspect mirrors to en-sure they are providing the required view outlined in Section 66(1)(b) and that the mirror is not cracked, broken, damaged, missing, maladjusted or have damaged attachments connecting it to the vehicle. Remember, in cases where the vehicle has been modified and the mirrors that were originally installed on the vehicle no longer allow the driver to have the view required by the HTA, the mirrors have to be relocated to an acceptable location or extended.

So next time you are doing an inspection on a CMV, don’t forget to take the time to ensure the mirrors are secured in place and when you are inspecting the rear lights, make sure that you can see the driver in the mirror to confirm that they are adjusted properly.


The Seatbelt

A Bullet Proof Vest for Police Drivers

By Sgt. Mark Wright, Ontario Provincial Police

Each day hundreds of police officers come to work, dutifully put on their uniform, and kit up with equip-ment to enhance their performance and increase their safety.

We have come a long way from the days when the bullet proof vest was seen as a cumbersome “optional” piece of kit often left behind in the locker room or back seat of the cruiser. Today we under-stand that the bullet proof vest provides an increased level of protection against the unknown. It in-creases our odds of survival.

Why then do many of these same officers enter into the one activity that continues to cause serious in-jury and claim on duty lives, and fail to use the protection afforded them?

Over the years I have heard (and personally used) many excuses for not wearing a seatbelt while on duty. For those who still chose not to wear your seatbelt on duty, I’m hoping the following will change your mind.

Vehicle Restraint Systems – how they work

Police vehicles driven by the OPP today provide a number of advanced safety features. Enhanced sup-plemental restraint systems include: Dual stage frontal airbags; side curtain airbags; seatbelt preten-sioners; and load limiters. These features work together to provide optimal protection for the occupant.

Each vehicle is equipped with an airbag control module and other sensors that detect the dynamics of a collision, and determine what safety features to deploy. The actual time that the collision forces act upon a vehicle is often less than 150 milliseconds. The airbag control module must determine very quickly what safety restraint features to deploy.

In severe frontal collisions all safety equipment will likely deploy. The seatbelt pretensioner will activate to reduce the slack in the seatbelt to reduce forward movement, the front airbag will deploy to reduce contact with the steering wheel, dashboard and/or windshield, and the load limiters will gradually loos-en the seatbelt to reduce the forces acting on the body by the seatbelt.

An unbelted occupant would still benefit partially from the protection of the airbag but would not be held within the seat compartment and risk severe injury from contact with the steering wheel, dash-board, windshield, roof and other components within the vehicle.

So what happens in less severe collisions?

Because the modern vehicle has more restraint options to use, computer modules analyze crash data to determine what safety systems to deploy. A crash that a few years ago would have resulted in an air-bag deployment, today may only result in the activation of a seatbelt pretensioner. >>



Not wearing a seatbelt while sitting in the front seat of a modern police car will activate an annoying bell. This is often rectified by fooling the system by: inserting a seatbelt extension buckle; buckling the seatbelt behind the seat or behind the driver; or using the passenger seatbelt buckle in the driver’s seat-belt receiver.

Fooling the restraint system on a modern police vehicle can have deadly consequences. If the control module records the seatbelt status as being “on”, and the collision severity doesn’t require an airbag, the vehicle may simply activate the seatbelt pretensioner. The unbelted occupant will continue to move for-ward at their current speed until they are stopped by the steering wheel, dashboard, and/or windshield.

Collisions often occur without warning. Even with warning, an occupant, no matter how strong, cannot withstand collision forces. No amount of white knuckled gripping will defy the laws of physics.

Statistics

In January 2011, the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) published the results of research into law enforcement motor vehicle collisions.

Vehicle Level

Rollover as a subsequent event accounted for 17 percent of the police passenger vehicles involving LEO fatalities in the 1980s. However, it increased to 20 percent in the 1990s and to 26 percent in the 2000s. As a result, rollover in total increased from 21 percent in the 1980s to 27 percent in the 1990s and then to 31 percent in the 2000s. Forty-seven percent of the police passenger vehicles involving LEO fatalities had “front” as the initial impact point, 24 percent had “left side,” 13 percent had “right side,” and 7 per-cent had “rear.” On the other hand, almost three-fourths (73%) of the initial impact point of the police motorcycles involving LEO fatalities were “front.”

“Going straight” (61%) was the major vehicle maneuver type for the police passenger vehicles involving LEO fatalities. This is followed by “negotiating curve” (19%) and “maneuvering to avoid animal/pedestrian/object” (6%). In the case of motorcycles, “going straight” (71%) is followed by “passing/overtaking another vehicle” (11%) and “negotiating curve” (8%). Drivers of 37 percent of the police pas-senger vehicles and 29 percent of the police motorcycles involving LEO fatalities did not attempt to avoid the crashes. In attempting to avoid the crashes, 13 percent of the police passenger vehicle drivers used steering; 6 percent used braking; and 10 percent used steering as well as braking. On the other hand, 19 percent of the police motorcycle drivers used braking; 9 percent used steering; and 14 percent used both steering and braking.



Person Level

Of the law enforcement officers killed in passenger vehicle crashes, 28 percent used restraint systems in the 1980s. The restraint system use increased to 56 percent in the 1990s, which is a 28-percentage-point increase. Recent data shows that the restraint system use decreased to 50 percent. Air bags were deployed in 56 percent of the LEO fatalities in passenger vehicles in the 2000s, which is a 29-percentage-point increase from 27 percent in the 1990s. During the period from 1980 to 2008, 19 per-cent of law enforcement officers killed in passenger vehicle crashes were ejected from the vehicles (15% totally ejected and 4% partially ejected).” NHTSA’s National Center for Statistics and Anal-ysis 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington DC 20590

Summary

No piece of safety equipment will protect you 100% of the time. Officers tragically die each year from gun and knife attacks, despite the use of bullet proof vests. However, many officers survive because they were using the safety equipment issued to them.

Using a seatbelt provides similar protection. Not every collision is survivable, but many fatal collisions would have been survivable IF the driver/passenger had been properly using their seatbelt.

Improve your odds… BUCKLE UP!

Page 16

Charge Indicators From CVSA Inspections


By: Sgt. Mike Hinsperger

The WRPS Traffic Services Brach has a total of 29 officers, including 1 Staff Sergeant, 5 Sergeants, and 23 constables.

Waterloo Traffic has a wide range of skill sets and covers the entire geo-graphic area of Waterloo Region, which has a population of approximately 555,000 people.

The Traffic Branch is responsible for services such as Collision Reconstruc-tion, Hit and Run Collision Investiga-tions, Central Breath Testing for the region, Commercial Vehicle -Inspections, Education and Enforce-ment, General Highway Enforcement, RIDE, and Total Station Operations to plot collision scenes, homicide scenes and other major scene surveying re-quirements.

The Branch has

7 - Level IV Re-Constructionists,

6 - Level III Collision Analysts,

6 - Drug Recognition Experts,

13 - Intoxilyzer Technicians, and

3 - CVSA Commercial Vehicle Inspectors.

Waterloo runs several commercial vehicle inspection initiatives annually including a multi-jurisdictional initiative in August each year. Waterloo has a diverse commercial vehicle population and diverse issues that arise with respect to modified implements of husbandry and other farm type equipment on area roads due to there being a high population of farming operations and rural highways in the area.

One that arises from time to time are farm designed vehicles being used on highways for commercial purposes such as hauling of aggregate and other none farm commodities for hire. Although there has been some enforcement success in the region with enforcement of these operators, a more clearly writ-ten piece of legislation would almost surely assist with the increasing frequency of these applications on our highways.

Waterloo Regional Police – Traffic Services


Interdiction Corner - Incidents

Page 18

On December 7th 2013 Constable Worrall of the Waterloo Regional Police Service was conducting gen-eral patrol in the city of Kitchener. At approximately 6:23pm Constable Worrall's attention was drawn to a 2013 Dodge AXT bearing Ontario Licence plate BMYZ 828 exiting a residence and traveling south bound on Victoria street north Kitchener without the headlights illuminated and initiated a traffic stop. During the traffic stop all three occupants ignited their cigarettes which was recognized as an indicator to mask odors within the motor vehicle. Drug packaging materials and loose currency was observed within the vehicle. Constable Worrall observed crystal methamphetamine in plain view on the floor and in back packs in the back seat. All occupants were placed under arrest and later charged for Possession for the purpose of trafficking crystal methamphetamine, heroin, possession of a prohibited weapon. The motor vehicle, Canadian currency, and other offence related property was seized as evidence. $36000 in Crystal Meth, $2200 in Heroine, $16000 in Canadian currency and a Conducted Energy Weapon (Taser), along with the motor vehicle were seized.

On December 31st at 9:30 p.m. Cst. Jason Nicholson of the Waterloo Regional Police conducted a traf-fic stop on a commercial vehicle for a seatbelt violation at Victoria Street South and Westmount Road in Kitchener. Throughout the course of the investigation, 3 people were arrested and a large quantity of drugs and stolen credit cards were found in the vehicle.

A 39 year old male, of no fixed address, a 33 year old female of Kitchener, and a 25 year old male of Waterloo were jointly charged numerous drug and criminal offences including Possession for the Pur-pose of Trafficking and Possession of Stolen Property. Other charges also laid included: Breach Proba-tion, Breach Recognizance, Possession of Break-in Tools, Possession of a Prohibited Weapon, Posses-sion of Identity Documents, and Possession of an Instrument for Copying Credit Card Data.

On February 22, 2014, the OPP, with the assistance of members of the Ministry of Transportation ar-rested a pair of Boisbriand, Quebec residents following a routine commercial vehicle inspection at the Lancaster Truck Inspection Station.

Mathieu Belanger, 34, the driver, and his passenger Catherine Villeneuve, 36 were charged with three drug-related offences – possession of cannabis/marijuana (under 30 grams), possession of cocaine and possession of methamphetamine.

Both suspects are scheduled to appear in Alexandria court on April 2.


By; Brian Hames, Transportation Enforcement Officer, MTO

On February 22nd 2013 at 10:30am I had just picked up a coffee and parked my Ministry vehi-cle on the shoulder of the highway 27 westbound entrance ramp to highway 407 when two things struck me : The first was a Mercedes Benz being “driven” by an impaired driver who was uncon-scious behind the wheel. The second thing was a very simple mistake which I (and many other of-ficers) make every day. I had just clipped back the lid of my coffee and placed it in the drink console anxious for it to cool down enough to have a sip as I scanned westbound CMV traffic. About five minutes had gone by and there was no sign of any insecure loads, dubious operators or anything else which may have caught my at-tention. I have thought about the fact that I was here looking for a vehicle to stop and not in-volved on a stop too many times to count, as I believe it is the reason why I am alive today.

I was debating trying my coffee when I first ob-served the Mercedes gradually veer from the highway into the entrance ramp lane and continuing towards the paved shoulder behind me. I initially assumed that it was merely another motorist pulling over to inform me about debris on the road or ask-ing for directions. I did my usual precursory scan around the inside of my vehicle to ensure that it was clean and professional looking – no paperback books or personal effects, just coffee. I glanced back at the rear view mirror and saw the car still veering towards me, now straddling the entrance ramp lane and the shoulder and still traveling at a high rate of speed. I remember cursing the driver in my head for not reducing their speed sooner and coming towards me too fast. I blinked, and thought “Why is he not slowing down!” I blinked again and finally realized “He’s not stopping!” I blinked again…

I felt completely helpless knowing that I was about to be hit and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. I closed my eyes tight right at the moment of impact. It was in this last split second that a lot of thoughts raced through my head. Of course I thought about my family (and some silly things which I still can’t figure out) but there was also one thought which I would like to share with you and is why I am writing this article. I thought about the fact that I had my seatbelt on. Now, you will recall that I had mentioned that I credited the fact that I was looking for a truck to stop and not on a stop as the reason that I survived the collision. Like all of you, I always put my seatbelt on when I get in and drive my vehicle, however after I stop a truck and return back to my vehicle with the driver’s docu-ments and begin to continue my work I never re-buckled my seatbelt. Do you? >>

I Thought I Was Working Safely…

And Then It Hit Me!



The Mercedes slammed into me at full force. There was the stomach turning, sickening crunch of metal and breaking glass. To this day I can still close my eyes and actually feel the vicious force of the impact. My head bounced off the back headrest as I was hurled forward and spun sideways fifty feet from where I had been parked. Police forensic examination of both vehicles placed his speed at 120 km/h at the point of impact. The cruiser was completely destroyed. The contents of my vehicle were scattered everywhere amidst broken pieces of plastic, glass and mangled steel. Somehow I was relatively unhurt. I was barely out of the vehicle when I was struck again, this time by a revelation. I thought about all of the thousands of hours I had spent working entering data into RDC, examining documents and writing tickets without a seatbelt on while parked on the shoulder behind a truck as literally tens of thousands of vehicles whizzed past me. The force that this thought hit me with scared me almost as much as the run-away vehicle.

A short while after the collision I attended a seminar put on by the OPP on pullover safety where I heard some statistics which claimed that over 50% of law enforcement officers who die in the line of duty die as a result of vehicle collisions. While this fact may not be surprising, what is shocking is that of these officers who did die in MVCs, 50% of them were reported to not have been wearing seat-belts. I found this hard to believe until I recalled how close I was to being a part of that very statistic. I still can’t explain why in all my years doing area patrol I did not buckle up after making a traffic stop other then to state that “nobody does…” I think this needs to change.

We all know that our jobs have many inherent dangers, and we do what we can to mitigate these risks. For example, we wear bullet proof vests and take regular DTT refreshers. So why not buckle up?

I will spare you all of my dramatic musings about “things happening for a reason” or preach as though I was some kind of expert in pullover safety and simply ask that everyone consider the poten-tial risks of not wearing your seatbelt at all times while in your ministry vehicle.


HEAVY AND LIGHT TOWING AND VEHICLE RECOVERY SEMINAR

May 21, 2014 – Barrie, Ontario

The day one agenda will focus on both light and heavy duty towing and recovery, with demonstrations and practical applications. Presentations will be conducted by Wreckmaster, Canadian Towing Equip-ment and other industry experts. MECHANICAL INSPECTIONS OF COMMERCIAL MOTOR VEHICLES – UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

May 22, 2014 – Barrie, Ontario

The day two agenda will focus on specific mechanical components as they apply to Commercial Motor Vehicles. These sessions will be an asset to those persons investigating commercial vehicle incidents/collisions. They will cover vehicle component fabrication and failure causation, as well as failure warning indicators and maintenance requirements. The sessions will also touch on the most current advancements that are being made in the industry. This day is primarily sponsored by Kenworth Truck Centres. Complete joining instructions, hotel and registration information is now available. Contact: Cnst. Cory Kostyra – [email protected]

CMV ENFORCEMENT FOR FRONTLINE OFFICERS

Alymer Police Service Date: April 15 - 17

Contact – Darrin Lockwood – [email protected]

Waterloo Regional Police Service Date: April 22 - 24

Contact – Sgt. Justin Rutherford 519-653-7700 ext 8880

Greater Sudbury Police Service Date – May 26 – 28

Contact – Emilia Luczak, 705-675-9171 x 2440

Follow OPCVC on Twitter to hear about more CMV courses coming soon!


By Jodi Shannon, Enforcement Information Coordinator

Do you ever wonder who the people are in the Carrier Enforcement Program Office (CEPO) and what they do every day? Sometimes the behind the scene things are never known but they do play an im-portant role in what you do as an officer performing commercial vehicle inspections on our roads. In addition to those things, together the staff in our office answered over 800 letters/emails from the pub-lic in 2013 not to mention the thousands of phone calls that we receive.

Let me take this opportunity to introduce you to the some of the staff in CEPO that you may come in contact with or deal with on occasion when you have an issue with Roadside Data Capture (RDC), your CVIR’s or you need CVSA decals or information.

Dora Cortellucci, Data Entry Lead:

Dora is definitely one who works behind the scene but has an important job to ensure that the system has the correct information regarding your inspections. She ensures that all the Commercial Vehicle Inspection Reports (CVIR’s) both paper and electronic are entered in the RDC database accurately and that any CVIR’s with errors are sent back to the Officer for correction. It is important to return the cor-rection to her in a timely manner to ensure the enforcement statistics are up to date on our systems. She also provides copies of CVIR’s to companies who require a paper copy of the inspection report done on their vehicle.

Teresa Kung,

In addition to assisting with Dora Cortellucci with the data entry of the CVIR’s, Teresa is responsible for monitoring, resolving and amending all incoming inspection data for the other provinces and territories. Teresa also ensures the integrity of the inspection data that Ontario sends to the other jurisdictions

David Brophy, Enforcement Services Advisor:

You may have spoken to or heard about Wayne Gott in the not so distant past. David has taken over Wayne’s position since he has retired. He is definitely not the “new” Wayne and has taken on the role with his own style. Part of his job is to ensure that the enforcement systems are kept up to date and functioning properly and when they are down to notify staff. He spends quite a bit of time trouble shooting problems that occur with our enforcement systems. He also ensures that officers who be-come Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) certified and able to inspect commercial vehicles have the correct access to the RDC system. He plays a key role in setting up the computers that we have in our enforcement vehicles and spends A LOT of time dealing with the ministry IT staff to keep our sys-tems working.

OPCVC will once again be going to enjoy a Saturday afternoon ball game. The game this year will be on June 7 against the Cardinals.

For more information contact Dal Gill at: [email protected]

Thanks Dal for arranging this fun event again this year!

A Day In the Life of CEPO

Play Ball


Kerri Wirachowsky, Bob Lickers, Sam Hardie, Enforcement Program Advisors:

The three program advisors in our office all play a different role with different program specialties. They all regularly answer questions via phone calls, emails or letters from the public, MTO enforcement officers and police officers. Kerri’s area of expertise is CVSA inspections, speed limiters and she is the lead CVSA representative for Ontario at CVSA conferences and the lead CVSA trainer for Ontario. Bob’s area of expertise Motor Vehicle Inspection Station (MVIS) questions regarding safeties and training, all Wheel Separation Reports are to be sent to Bob for tracking and Bob is the Roadcheck and Operation Air Brake Blitz Coordinator. Bob and Sam are both CVSA trainers as well. Sam’s area of expertise is the portable radio system the officers use and is the MTO representative for the Government Mobile Com-munication Program meetings and the PSRN working group for the next generation of radio communi-cation. He is also the lead for the Commercial Vehicle Impound Program and is responsible for tracking impounds and ensuring the Impound Facilities are in place and following the guidelines provided to them.

JoAnn Walters, Alex Bugeya, Facility Audit Administrators:

JoAnn and Alex oversee the MTO Facility Audit Program. They ensure all audits completed across the province are completed correctly and in a timely fashion so that the Operators Commercial Vehicle Op-erating Record is accurate and complete. If an officer has a company on road after completing an in-spection they have an issue with or question about, JoAnn or Alex can also address that matter for you.

Warren Reynolds, Head, Training and Development:

Warren is the head trainer for the entire training program. He is the lead contact for MTO and police agencies when they want to set up or sign up for training that MTO is holding. He facilitates the train-ing locations and ensures that there are instructors available when required. He completes all the Mem-orandum of Understandings with the various police agencies across the province.

And lastly me – Jodi Shannon, Enforcement Information Coordinator:

I am responsible for ensuring that all printed materials required for training are up to date and complete and ready for each training class. I send out the E-Updates, Regulatory Guidance and Directives writ-ten by all the above individuals and I also send out a quarterly newsletter to the enforcement communi-ty and to those police officers that I have their email for. I distribute the CVSA decals and Guardian quarterly to MTO officers and the police agencies with certified CVSA officers. I also assist many of the CEPO staff when required.

Of course we also have our Manager who is currently Alf Brown and Kelly Payetta, the Administrative Assistant who keep our office running smoothly and try to keep us out of trouble!

That is who does what in CEPO in readers digest version. There are many tasks and behind the scene discussions to aid and assist in the running of our enforcement program. I hope you have learned something about us.


By Alf Brown, Ministry of Transportation

When I started this “job” 27 years ago as a young inspector at the Put-nam Truck Inspection station, I really had no idea what an amazing ca-reer it would turn out to be. I also never imagined what I would be in store for in the years ahead of me. I remember the hesitation I had when deciding if I should apply for the job, because I didn’t want to “weigh trucks” for 30 years. Well if I knew then what I know now there would not have been any hesitation.

Well, on April 23, 2014, my career with the Ministry of Transportation is coming to an end as I will be moving to Edmonton to take the position of Director of Vehicle Safety, with Alberta Transportation. I am excited for the new challenge, but at the same time sad to leave the many friends that I have made over my career with the MTO.

Over these 27 years I have been fortunate to travel all across Ontario and to many places in North America. Through my travels, and being given the opportunity to be involved in training and work on a number of committees; I have had the privilege of meeting and working with so many wonderful people and I developed some amazing friendships many of which I know will last a lifetime.

An friend recently told me about some advice he received from his grandpa, he told me “…my grandpa said to me that when you get to a point in your life that your closer to the end then you are to the be-ginning it’s not the house you live in or the car that you drive that will matter. What will matter are the relationships you have built. If you can be a person that people were glad they came to know and in some way, big or small, they were a better person for having come to know you, then your life will have been well spent.” This person’s grandpa was a very wise man!

In closing I will just say this. I hope that if our paths did cross in my 27 years with the MTO that you are glad they did. I also hope that in at least a small way, I had a positive impact on your life as so many of you have had a positive impact on my life. If for some reason I missed that opportunity with you I am truly sorry, I will consider that one of my failures.

So the time has come for me to saddle up and ride off to my next adventure, I am leaving knowing there is another great group of people in Alberta for me to work with, I consider myself very blessed.

Thank you for doing what you do! Even though I will be in Alberta, please continue to work hard keep-ing our roads safe. I do sincerely believe Ontario will have the safest roads in the world one day soon because of your efforts.

Please stay safe, and may you be blessed like I have been over my career.

Until our paths cross again, keep in touch!

What A Great Adventure!



Pat Martin - [email protected]




Editorial Staff


NEXT OPCVC MEETING Follow us on Twitter to find out about the next OPCVC meeting. It will be hosted by Peel Re-gional Police.

York Regional Police

Location: Wonderland Date: April 30 - May 1.

Contact: Armando Pecchia - [email protected]

Halton Regional Police

Location: Oakville Date: May 13 - 14

Location: Burlington Date: June 16 - 17

Contact: Pat Martin - [email protected]

Toronto Police Service Location: Woodbine Race Track Date: TBD Contact: Dal Gill - [email protected]

UPCOMING JOINT FORCES INITIATIVES

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

By: Staff Sgt. Mike Hinsperger, WRPS, OPCVC Chair

Another busy blitz season has come and

gone, and a lot of activity has flowed under

the bridge throughout the province. Interest-

ingly the issue has arisen from our industry

partners and specifically most recently by

OTA, that our blitz statistics don’t provide an

accurate reflection of the state of the trans-

portation industry as a whole, with respect to

Out of Service criteria. It has become the topic of discussion within the

law enforcement community. It has been suggested on a number of

fronts that it would assist in compiling statistics if we broke down the

OOS rates into CVOR vs Non CVOR type vehicles.

This would probably be easiest if it were to occur when officers working

the blitzes to submit that information for each blitz. I know MTO has that

information available when requested, but for ease of reporting the num-

bers right after the blitzes are complete, it would be helpful to have this

information up front.

On another note I had the privilege of being one of the OPCVC members

to represent the committee at this years, CVSA convention in Buffalo NY.

Our committee was very well received and asked for an overview of what

activities our committee is involved with. I was able to provide a short

presentation to the police committee. They were very impressed at the

great co-operation occurring between all of the agencies involved and the

successes we have achieved in a very short period of time.

I want to personally thank all the OPCVC members and CMV inspectors

who assisted in all the enforcement initiatives this 2014 season. Your ef-

forts again have shown the great work being done and the unsafe equip-

ment being taken off the road, making our roads in this province some of

safest in the country. I look forward to proudly working together with all

you into the 2015 season!

Thanks you for a great 2014 and all the best into 2015 season.

Stay safe!


EDITION #5 WINTER 2015

2014

Inspection

Results *

117,166 Inspections

33,744 Placed OOS

28.8% OOS Rate

31,415 Charged

26.8% Charge Rate

Top 5 Violations *

Brake Systems

Lighting Systems

Hours of Service

Trip Inspection

Load Security

* YTD - Dec. 14, 2014

Inside this issue:

Bill 15 2

Interdiction Corner 6

Speed Limiters 7

Wall of Shame 10

Roadcheck 2014 12

Changes to TDG 16


2014 JFI Results 19

OPCVC Executive 21


ONTARIO REGULATING TOW INDUSTRY AND OTHERS

By: Sgt. Scott Parker, Ontario Provincial Police

Bill 15, passed by the Provincial Government in November 2014 is an Act to amend various statutes in the

interest of reducing insurance fraud, enhancing tow and storage service and providing for other matters

regarding vehicles and highways. Much of this bill and the history behind this bill came from the Ministry

of Finance Steering Committee on Report on Reducing Auto Insurance Fraud in Ontario and two Inquests

conducted by the Office of the Chief Coroner in Ontario related to deaths of persons while tow operations

were occurring on Ontario Highways.

The Bill is entitled the Fighting Fraud and Reducing Automobile

Insurance Rates Act, 2014 but in reality seeks to enhance public

safety through accountability. The Bill, once royal assent is ob-

tained, will amend the following acts: The Consumer Protection

Act, The Highway Traffic Act, The Repair and Storage Liens Act,

The Insurance Act, The Financial Services Commission of Ontario

Act, The Licence Appeal Tribunal Act, The Insurance Act and

The Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Act. The major amendments

that will affect law enforcement and the motoring public will be

to the Consumers Protection Act, The Highway Traffic Act and

the repair and Storage Liens Act.

So what changes? First thing that one must realize is that the majority of the “teeth” in this act will be in

the regulations under the various act to be amended which are yet to be written. The Government will

most likely hold a number of stakeholder consultation meetings before drafting the regulations. As with

the drafting of the bill, it is anticipated that the OACP Tow working group will be at the table along with

the other stakeholders. The Act by itself is largely a toothless shark but if the teeth grow in it will take a

bite out of tow operators who do not operate safely or endeavour to enhance profit margins by commit-

ting fraud.

The first goal is to prevent fraud and enhance consumer protection. This is accomplished by changes to

the Consumer Protection Act. The changes to this Act include: defining what a tow truck is, who a tow

service provider and operator are. Regardless of who is authorizing a tow, for example the vehicle owner,

a third party (insurance company for example) or a prescribed person (police officer), the person author-

izing the tow must be provide with the prescribed information related to services and fees by the tow op-

erator. If the estimated cost of the tow or storage service is more than stated on the list of fees then the

actual bill cannot exceed the estimated cost by more than 10%. Further the Act will require that regard-

less of who the customer is, the fee must be the same. So no longer can a tow company charge a premi-

um rate because the police called for a tow truck. If a tow truck driver or a tow operator has interest in a

business such as a body shop or repair facility, the driver or operator must disclose that interest to the

customer. The tow truck operator must provide access to the customer so that all other articles of proper-

ty in the vehicle can be removed by the owner. >>



The other consumer protection piece to note is that payment for tow services can no longer be cash only.

With proclamation towers will have to accept payment in the form of cash, credit or other means agreea-

ble. As with other amendments to this act, a tow operator will have to be qualified to offer or operate a

tow service or tow truck. What the qualification will be is yet to be determined.

The Amendments to the Highway Traffic Act will enhance road safety and start with changes in defini-

tions.

“A commercial vehicle under section 1 will be defined as: “commercial motor vehicle”,

unless otherwise defined by regulation, means a motor vehicle having attached to it a

truck or delivery body and includes an ambulance, a hearse, a casket wagon, a fire ap-

paratus, a bus and a tractor used for hauling purposes on a highway;

Again a strong reference to “unless otherwise defined in regulations”. This is important as section 16 will

be repealed and the definition of a commercial vehicle will be found in the regulations. So just like a bus is

always a commercial vehicle, this will allow the Government to designate certain commercial vehicles as

CVOR vehicles, like a bus, a tow truck or even a vehicle built on a truck chassis used in the construction

industry such as a “vac” truck or a concrete pumper.

If a fleet limitation certificate is issued to an operator, this document will have to be carried in the vehicle.

The amendments also allows for administrative penalties against an operator for prescribed offences.

These penalties can be applied in addition to any other regulatory offence penalty and there is no right to

appeal except through Divisional Court. The maximum administrative penalty will be $20,000.

The amendments also require that certain prescribed vehicles to be monitored by electronic means. Sec-

tion 22 of the HTA will be amended to read:

”Subsection 22 (1) of the Act is amended by adding the following clauses:

(i.1) requiring specified classes of owners and operators to install or to carry in their

commercial motor vehicles, or in some of their commercial motor vehicles, as specified in

the regulation, a device that is capable of recording and transmitting data about the

operation of the vehicle and the conduct of the driver, prescribing standards and specifi-

cations for the device and requiring and governing its use;”

An amendment to section 47 of the HTA will allow the Registrar of Motor vehicles to immediately sus-

pend or cancel a CVOR certificate if the certificate or plate holder’s failure to comply with this or any other

Act demonstrates a significant risk to road safety or to road users and it is in the public interest that the

operator immediately cease operating all commercial motor vehicles

The regulations under the HTA will also contain certain prohibitions related only to tow truck operators

and an offence for a tow operator engaging in prohibited activity.>>



The Repair and Storage Liens Act is amended and specifically refers to liens that arise from towing ser-

vices. The amendment ensures that towing liens are treated the same as storage liens in that a lien only

arises if:

1. the agreed amount is not paid,

2. the fair value as determined by the regulations is not paid or

3. if only part of the tow or storage or repair is made that the fair value for that part of the tow or

storage as determined by the regulation is not paid.

There is added protection in that no lien can arise if the tower, storage facility and or repair facility

breaches part VI.I of the Consumer Protection Act. The storage facility must notify within 60 days the

owner or any person who has ownership or security interest in the vehicle being stored. The storage facil-

ity must give notice within the prescribed period if the storage facility is aware that there is a security in-

terest in the vehicle such as a leased or financed vehicle and failure to give this notice will result on the

storage facility only being entitled to payment equal to the period of storage from date the vehicle was

received in storage to the date notice was required to be given.

It is fully anticipated that with the OACP Tow working group at the stakeholder table we will be able to

assist the various Ministries of the Government of Ontario to write regulations that will enhance the Act to

amend various statutes in the interest of reducing insurance fraud, enhancing tow and storage service and

providing for other matters regarding vehicles and highways (Bill15). The regulations must be written

in a manner to ensure enhanced public safety and include methods to prevent fraud related to the towing

industry. We must be clear in our role that we are not to become advocates for the consumer but work to

ensure public safety by making highways a safer place. This is accomplished by holding those who profit

from towing accountable for their actions, the actions of their employees or brokers and the state of the

equipment employed on the highways. No different than anyone else employed or who has vested owner-

ship within the larger transportation industry. The Bill and the regulations will also put into place a frame-

work for preventing fraud related to the towing industry as one of our many duties in law enforcement is to

prevent crime.


New Law For Trip Inspections in the U.S.

By: Alf Brown, Honorary OPCVC Member

Effective December 18, 2014 commercial truck drivers in the United States are no longer required to com-

plete an inspection report when their pre– and post-trip inspection does not identify and safety defects.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) estimates that professional truck drivers spend

approximately 46.7 million hours each year completing Driver Vehicle Inspection Reports (DVIRs). Elimi-

nating DVIRs when no safety defects or mechanical deficiencies are identified will result in savings valued

at 1.7 billion dollars annually. It is estimated that this final rule will remove the requirement that drivers

file a report for approximately 95% of inspections when equipment problems or safety concerns are not

identified.

There is a reciprocity agreement between Canada and the US in regard to Trip Inspection Reports. Cana-

dian drivers are allowed to produce Canadian trip inspection reports when travelling in the US and US

based carriers can have their drivers produce US based trip inspection reports. Therefore, drivers of vehi-

cles base-plated in American jurisdictions must produce one of the following:

➢ Inspection report from their home state providing it is current to the previous 24 hours; or

➢ Inspection reports and schedules that are in compliance with Regulation 199/07

This new rule does not impact the reciprocity agreement that is already in place so despite a U.S. driver

not being required to carry an inspection report in the U.S., they still must have a report meeting the

above requirements while operating a commercial motor vehicle in Ontario.

COMMERCIAL VEHICLE IMPOUNDS - 2014 Information Provided By: Sam Hardie, Carrier Enforcement Program Office

2013 had the highest number of commercial vehicles impounded for having a “critical defect” since 2005.

Officers at the now eighteen CVIP locations impounded 143 vehicles.

From 2006 until 2012 the average number of impounds per

year was 91. Two factors that helped increase the number of

impounds in 2013 were the addition of two CVIP locations

and an amendment to the regulation adding inoperative

brakes as a defect that could form part of a critical defect.

For the year 2014 (as of December 18th) the number of vehi-

cles impounded for the presence of a critical defect was 136.

February 2014 had 25 impounds which was the highest monthly total since April 2004.

INTERDICTION CORNER

By: Mike Hinsperger, OPCVC, WRPS


On 01Aug14 at approximately 1:59 pm ,PC Sinclair, and PC Coles of the East Region OPP HET Unit were conducting traffic patrol on Highway #401 in the City of Kingston, Frontenac County. The officers were westbound near John F Scott Road when they passed a bobtail 2014 Volvo tractor bearing BC plates. The truck door proclaimed that it was registered to an Abbotsford, BC company. It appeared to be equipped for oversized loads. The officers stopped the truck to examine its logbooks for hours of work issues.

The driver was pressed on his hours for the day and why it had taken three hours to drive from Greely to Kingston. PC Sinclair explained that Highway #416 in part of his patrol area and he knows that it should only take a little over an hour.

PC Sinclair asked for all of the driver’s documents and receipts for this current trip. The driver reached up over his head into the storage compartment and started to pull out receipts. He sorted through them and attempted to surrepti- tiously put two back inside without tendering them. The officer pointed out that he was to produce all of his paperwork, not just what he chose to hand over. The driver attempted to explain them away as personal purchases.

During his initial interaction with the driver PC Sinclair asked him to open the curtains to his sleeper berth to determine the presence of any passengers, co-drivers or any safety issues for him. The driver ignored this request. PC Sinclair reached over himself and opened the left curtain. No one was present inside, but 3 hockey bags were present on the top bunk.

Three knives, a set of brass knuckles and a brass banded club were also found in the truck. All were placed to offer ease of access to the driver. Just less than 35 pounds of marihuana was seized in the hockey bags. The driver was arrested and charged with possession of marihuana for the purpose of trafficking.

A detailed examination of the log book also showed a violation of hours of work. A PON was issued for

this offence as well. The tractor was seized as offence related property.


SPEED LIMITER / LIDAR PILOT PROJECT

By: Kerri Wirachowsky, Carrier Enforcement Program Office

Speed Limiters have been a requirement under the Highway Traffic Act (HTA) now for 5 years. Throughout this time various officers have gone to great lengths to enforce the requirement with the use of the EZ-Tap tool that pulls information from the Electronic Control Module (EC M) and provides us with a print out of the Maximum Road Speed Setting. Over the course of the last five years, it has become evident that there may be some operators that have discovered means and ways to circumvent the setting that is in their engine. It was determined that it was now time to introduce LIDAR to help enforce the deeming provision that is outlined in Section 68.1(9) of the HTA. The LIDAR pilot com- menced on August 1, 2014 and is expected to last for a year.

On July 15th the first 11 of 46 officers attended the first every LIDAR training for MTO officers in the province. There were 3 courses held during that week and the following 2 weeks. All the officers received training in both EZ-Tap Devices and LIDAR. I appreciated the help and support that we received from the OPP with this training and I am also happy to report that from my perspective the training was very well received by all that attended. I also want to thank all the MTO officers that were already trained in EZ-Tap use for helping me during the practical exercises out at Vineland during the first day. A special thank you also to the staff at Vineland that helped us any way they could so we could do as many inspections as possible during the short time we were there. Without the help of others, it would have been nearly impossible. As it was, with some of the larger classes, I am sure some officers that attended heard me equate it to “herding cats”J. However, with the high interest in the training and the support of all that attended, I think it is safe to say that it was a success all around. It was entertaining for me to watch the officers during the practical training learn how to use the LIDAR and EZ-Tap and see them discover all the possibilities they may encounter when dealing with the speed limiter legislation.

I also want to say a special thanks to the managers and director that attended the training to show their support and gain a full understanding of the expectations of the program to facilitate the success of this pilot. Those that attended were: John Ouellette, Alison Ducette, Michele Mills, Janice Merkley, Jennie Thornton, Eric Gat- ien, Barry Gopie, Shawn Dotzko, Rick Nation, Karl Doherty and Peter Hurst.

Ryan DeFaria from MTO Legal Branch also at-

tended to ensure there were would be no legal issues moving forward. >>



Below are a few comments from those that attended the training so that other officers can get a glimpse into what the officers encountered during the training.

“The LIDAR program is a big step in the right direction for our enforcement program. The pilot program should help identify gaps in our speed limiter enforcement

program, and I hope it gets expanded in the future.” – Mike Rounding, Windsor

“I think that the training was very well done and informative. The LIDAR equipment and training will give our team the opportunity to further enhance our ability to bring the CMV road user into compliance. We’re already the CMV experts out on the highway and the information gathered from this pilot will only better equip us to

continue doing excellent work.” – Michele Mills, Aurora

“Very informative and excellent training, nice to see us moving ahead and have Di- rectors that are “thinking out of the box.” Excellent instructors!” – John Ouellette, North Bay

“I am excited for the opportunity to participate in the LIDAR program as I think it will be an effective enforcement tool. The training provided by the OPP was excellent and informative. I look forward to the continuing evolution of the speed limit-

er / LIDAR program”. – Mark Renton, Putnam

From August 1— December 15, 2014 the following data has been collected by the MTO officers participating in the program:

• 320 Vehicles Inspected

• 115 - Speed Limiter Charges Laid

• 23 - Charges laid using the deeming provision (Vehicle travelling over 115 km/hr)


CHARGE INDICATORS FROM CVSA INSPECTIONS

FOLLOW OPCVC ON TWITTER

OPCVC is now on Twitter @OPCVC, thanks to Pat Martin from Halton Re- gional Police, and Vice Chair of OPCVC. If you have anything you think would be of interest for OPCVC to “tweet” out, send it to our email [email protected] , and Pat will tweet it out. As of Dec. 22, 2014 we have sent out 3,434 tweets and have 982 followers. Help us to get over the 1,000 followers!

*YTD—2014

mailto:[email protected]


THE WALL OF SHAME

Would you want to be driving in front

of this guy? Seriously...this vehicle was put out-of-

service for bad tires. Look what is was carrying.

Are those the new miniature tires on

that trailer!

No… no tires or rims, and … the driver knew, he was just bringing home from

the cottage! WOW!!!

How not to attach a strap to the trailer! Bulge in the sidewall of a tire.


THE WALL OF SHAME - INSECURE LOADS

No tail gate Would you want to be following this

guy?

No straps! No straps again!!

Secured dangerous goods cylinders. NOT! Follow this guy long enough you might be lucky and get 4 new tires!


ROADCHECK 2014

By: Kerri Wirachowsky, Carrier Enforcement Program Office

Commercial vehicle inspectors across Ontario participate in this an-

nual 72 hour blitz held across North America. During Roadcheck

2014, 73,475 truck and bus inspections were conducted. Of those

inspections 49,656 were Level 1 inspections which is a full mechani-

cal inspection of the vehicle and an inspection of the driver including

drivers licence and hours of service records.

Of the Level 1 inspections conducted, 23% resulted in the vehicle

being placed Out-of-Service (OOS). Of the 72,415 drivers that were

inspected during this initiative 4.8% were found with OOS violations.

In addition to the Level 1 Inspections Roadcheck 2014 also placed special emphasis on hazardous mate-

rials / dangerous goods regulatory compliance. Although they represent a smaller segment of truck

transportation, such shipments require special documents, driver credentials, and hazard identification

and communication including placarding to signify the added risks of exposure in the event of a crash,

leak or fire. A total of 5,738 inspections included HM/DG during Roadcheck 2014, with 919 (16%) found

with vehicle OOS violations and 172 (3%) with driver OOS violations.

Brake defects always seem to be the most common OOS defect and this past year was no different.

Brake defects accounted for 46.2% of vehicle OOS violations including brakes not properly adjusted

(16.7%) and other brake system defects (29.5%). Tire defects was the next most common OOS defect

(13.8%), followed by lighting (13.5%) and cargo securement (11.5%).

As far as driver OOS defects hours of service violations was the highest at 46.5% of all OOS defects, fol-

lowed by false logs (13.7%), driving while disqualified (12.7%) and driving while suspended (7.8%).

Roadcheck 2015 will be held June 2, 3 and 4th at various locations across the province. All CVSA certified

inspectors are invited to participate. For more information contact the Ministry of Transportation - Carri-

er Enforcement Program Office at [email protected]



A TALE OF TWO LOGS

By: Alf Brown, Honorary OPCVC Member

I recently assisted with an investigation in which the driver of a commercial vehicle was found to be in

possession of two logbooks for the same time period. Section 190 (5) of the Highway Traffic Act cre-

ates an offence for a driver to have more than one daily log for the same time period or overlapping

time period.

190 (5) No driver shall make or have more than one daily log that records the same time period

or overlapping time periods.

The Part 1 fine for that offence is $400.00

I want to take this opportunity to explain to you what this driver was doing so that next time you exam-

ine a logbook you can look out for this method of cheating.

The driver did a very lengthy trip from Thunder Bay to Toronto, he

had a “North” logbook and a “South” logbook. If he was stopped on

the northern portion of the trip he would surrender his “North” log-

book, it would appear that he travelled from Thunder Bay to Sudbury,

where he went off duty for an extended period then he would drive

back to Thunder Bay.

If the driver was stopped on the southern portion of the trip he would surrender his “South” logbook and

it would appear that he went from Sudbury to Toronto and back to Sudbury where he would spend

a couple days off duty. So while his “North” log book showed him off duty in Sudbury he was actually

driving to Toronto and back, and while his “South” logbook showed him off duty in Sudbury he was ac-

tually driving back to Thunder Bay.

So what are some clues that may have helped to detect this? If he had supporting documents, they

would have showed that in fact he did not stop in Sudbury. Also, every time he left Sudbury to drive

back to Thunder Bay, there was 700 – 800 km difference from his ending odometer when he arrived in

Sudbury to his starting odometer when he left for Thunder Bay.

It is important when you are interviewing drivers to try to determine if anyone else drives the truck

while he is off duty. In this case nobody did.

Anyone who has driven to Thunder Bay, will know that it is a very long and tiring drive and a person

cannot do it without taking adequate rest stops.

So next time you have a logbook, challenge yourself to “dig a little deeper”. In this case, both logs were false and if detected not only would the driver be charged but he would also be placed out-of- service for 72 hours.


CVSA ANNUAL CONFERENCE

By: Cnst. Dal Gill, TPS, OPCVC Executive

The week of September 14 – 18 I had the privilege of attending the

2014 CVSA Annual Conference and Exhibition in Buffalo, New York

with several other members of the OPCVC. This conference gave

me the opportunity to get the latest information about commercial

vehicle safety and learn what is on the horizon. During the numer-

ous educational sessions and the general sessions I was able to

hear from key players in CMV safety.

The trade show provided me with an opportunity to talk with lead-

ing manufacturers and suppliers and to see some of the new inno-

vative products and technology solutions to improve commercial vehicle safety and to enhance com-

mercial vehicle enforcement.

The “off-time” hours and events allowed me to make several professional connections with police

and commercial vehicle enforcement personnel from all across Canada and the United States.

The “General Session” had several keynote speakers including Sgt. Tom Fuller, New York State Police,

CVSA Out-Going President. Capt. Bill Reese, from Idaho State Police, the new President of CVSA and

Stephen Keppler, Executive Director of CVSA. Representatives from Canada, United States and Mexico

provided a Regulatory Update, and concluded the morning session with a roundtable.

During the week I was able to attend several committee meetings and participate in the several of the

committee meetings. For those not familiar with CVSA it is comprised of several different committees

including:

- Driver-Traffic Enforcement Committee - Program Initiatives Committee

- Hazardous Materials Committee - Vehicle Committee

- Information Systems Committee - Training Committee

- Passenger Carrier Committee - Size & Weight Committee

The New York State Police were excellent hosts and did a great job showing us around Buffalo.

I am really going to try to attend some future conferences and I would encourage any CMV officer to

consider attending as well. It was a very

positive and valuable experience.


OPCVC … OUT AND ABOUT

Above: OPCVC Members enjoying some

of the sites of Buffalo while attending

the CVSA Conference this past fall.

Left: OPCVC Members with Mark "The

Animal" Mendoza, bass guitarist from

the band “Twisted Sister” (3rd from

left) who now works for NY State Po-

lice.

OPCVC Members L - R - Fawaz Owayda, Armando Pecchia, Gino Romita, Dal Gill, Greg Castle

Volunteer at the St. Camillus Gala, an event that raises money to help children struggling with

HIV / AIDS in Third and Developing World.


CHANGES TO THE TDG REGULATIONS By: Alf Brown, Honorary OPCVC Member

On January 1, 2015 the amendments to the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulation (TDGR) that were published in July will come into effect. There have been some significant changes to Part 4 (Safety Marks) that Dan- gerous Goods Inspectors will have to keep in mind.

One of the major changes is that the concept of “permissive placards” which was introduced into the Canadian Regulations in an attempt to “harmonize” with the U.S. Regulations.

The Ministry of Transportation, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and the Canadian Associa- tion of Fire Chiefs all opposed this change and wrote Transport Canada expressing concern over permissive placarding. Basically, what it means is that displaying a placard for a small quantity of dangerous goods will now be permitted. In addition, no longer will a person have to remove the placards that are displayed on a vehicle when the quantity drops below 500 kg.

Dangerous Goods Inspectors will now have to approach an inspection in a different way. Where in the past you would determine if placards were required to be displayed on a vehicle, you should now approach an inspection from the perspective of “can the vehicle operate without placards”. The placarding requirements in the TDGR start in section 4.15 which requires the primary class placard for each dangerous good in a large means of containment must be displayed on each side and each end.

Section 4.16.1(1) and 4.17 of the amended regulation now provides an exemption for displaying placards. Placards are NOT required for:

Dangerous Goods (other than those listed in the next paragraph) that have a gross mass < 500 kg.

< 1000 kg NEQ of Class 1.4 (other than UN0301)

Any quantity of Class 1.4S

The new Section 4.16.1(2) now requires placards to be displayed for:

Dangerous Goods that require an ERAP

Class 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.5 > 10 kg NEQ (SP 85/86 – 1000 articles)

Any quantity of Class 2.1 to be transported by ship

Any quantity of Class 2.3

Any quantity of Class 4.3

Any quantity of Class 5.2, Type B, Temperature Controlled

Any quantity of Class 6.1, that are subject to SP 23

Any quantity of Class 7, Category III – Yellow Label

A LMOC that contains a LMOC which a placard is required but not visible >>



A new warning “toxic by inhalation” or “toxic – inhalation hazard” is required to be displayed on both small and large means of containment that are used to transport any dangerous good that is subject to Special Provision 23.

TOXIC—INHALATION HAZARD

The rules regarding displaying a DANGER placard have also changed significantly. Section 4.16 does

NOT allow a danger placard to be used for the following:

Any Dangerous Good that has a gross mass > 1000 kg (from one consignor)

Any Dangerous goods that require an ERAP

Any Class 1

Any Class 2.1 if to be transported by ship

Any Class 2.3

Any Class 4.3

Any Class 5.2, Type B, Temperature Controlled

Any Class 6.1 (SP 23)

Any Class 7, Category III

There has also been a change for vehicles that are carrying a mixed load of gases that include toxic gas (Class 2.3), they are now only required to display the 2.3 placard. Prior to this amendment they would have to display a Danger placard and a 2.3 placard.

All designated “Dangerous Goods Inspectors” have been provided with a training CD which outlines these amendments. Inspectors are required to review the material and once the test is completed; send in a copy of the “Certificate of Completion”, to the following address:

Ministry of Transportation

Carrier Enforcement Program Office

301 St. Paul St., 3rd Floor

St. Catharines, ON, L2R 7R4

Attn: Kerri Wirachowsky

Or email: [email protected]

If you require further information on the training CD contact Kerri Wirachowsky at the email address

above.



Aylmer Police Service in conjunction with Waterloo

Regional Police Service and the Ontario Provincial

Police are proud to offer;

Frontline Officer Commercial Motor Vehicle Training.

This 3 day program (1.5 days Academic Training, 1.5 days Practical Training) is designed especially for

the “Frontline Officer”, and has been developed by the Ontario Police Commercial Vehicle Committee,

which is a subcommittee to the OACP Traffic Committee. This course will familiarize the frontline officer

to the common enforcement issues in regards to a routine Commercial Motor Vehicle traffic stop. All

successful participates will receive a Provincially recognized certificate.

The Program will be offered May 12 – 14, 2015 and held at the Aylmer Fire Department Training office,

located at 323 John Street, South Aylmer, Ontario, from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm each day. Attire is general

patrol uniform including a road vest. All lunches and breaks will be provided. Cost is $75.00 per officer.

To register, please see attached form. If there are any questions, please contact Cst. Darrin Lockwood

of the Aylmer Police Service at [email protected], or call 1-226-234-3695.

Please note that seats are limited.



2014 Commercial Vehicle Initiatives During 2014 OPCVC Member Services held 14 Joint Force Initiatives.

The results of these initiatives are as follows:

Vehicles Inspected - 2754

Vehicles Out-of-Service - 1100 (40%)

Plates Removed - 156

Total Charges Laid - 2846


2014 Commercial Vehicle Initiatives



Editorial Staff

Alf Brown

[email protected]

Mike Hinsperger, Chair - [email protected]

Pat Martin, Vice Chair - [email protected]

Dal Gill, Director of Outreach - [email protected]

Armando Pecchia, Director of Training - [email protected]

Scott Parker, Director of Communications - [email protected]

If you have an interesting article, a submission for the “Wall of Shame” or want to be added to the distribution list for “The Word on The Street” contact me at: [email protected]

NEXT OPCVC MEETING Follow us on Twitter to find out about the next OPCVC meeting which will take place in the spring. The meeting will be hosted by Peel Regional Police. Date and location to be determined.

OPCVC Meeting—Aylmer November 2014









OPCVC Media Releases

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/3921679-commercial-vehicle-blitz-yields-117-charges-on-first-

day/

https://www.haltonpolice.ca/about/psb/documents/2013/Mar/P13-03%20-

%20March%2028%202013%20Public%20Minutes.pdf

https://blog.bigroad.com/blog/law-enforcement-learning-about-elogs-opcvc

http://ckpolice.com/commercial-motor-vehicle-training/

http://www.metronews.ca/news/canada/2014/08/08/two-day-truck-blitz-turns-up-major-infractions-

in-ontario.html

https://www.facebook.com/autozeitung/videos/10154617886958966/

http://www.570news.com/2016/08/10/annual-commercial-vehicle-safety-blitz-takes-over-kitchener-

auditorium/

https://southwesternontariotrafficweather.wordpress.com/tag/commercial-trucks/

https://southwesternontariotrafficweather.wordpress.com/tag/trucks/

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4634101-opp-commercial-vehicle-safety-blitz-part-enforcement-

part-education/

http://barrie.ctvnews.ca/mobile/mto-police-continue-blitz-on-commercial-trucks-on-our-highways-

1.1479224

http://www.canadianunderwriter.ca/insurance/almost-half-of-inspected-commercial-vehicles-in-

durham-region-ont-taken-off-the-road-due-to-safety-1003863966/

http://www.citynews.ca/2014/08/20/commercial-vehicle-safety-blitz-in-toronto-targeted-minorities-

lawyer/

http://www.cp24.com/news/commercial-vehicle-safety-blitz-in-toronto-targeted-minorities-lawyer-

1.1968779

http://www.chch.com/opp-kicks-off-commercial-vehicle-safety-program/

https://www.sootoday.com/local-news/police-blitz-targets-unsafe-commercial-vehicles-131468

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/3921679-commercial-vehicle-blitz-yields-117-charges-on-first-day/

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/3921679-commercial-vehicle-blitz-yields-117-charges-on-first-day/

https://www.haltonpolice.ca/about/psb/documents/2013/Mar/P13-03%20-%20March%2028%202013%20Public%20Minutes.pdf

https://www.haltonpolice.ca/about/psb/documents/2013/Mar/P13-03%20-%20March%2028%202013%20Public%20Minutes.pdf

https://blog.bigroad.com/blog/law-enforcement-learning-about-elogs-opcvc

http://ckpolice.com/commercial-motor-vehicle-training/

http://www.metronews.ca/news/canada/2014/08/08/two-day-truck-blitz-turns-up-major-infractions-in-ontario.html

http://www.metronews.ca/news/canada/2014/08/08/two-day-truck-blitz-turns-up-major-infractions-in-ontario.html

https://www.facebook.com/autozeitung/videos/10154617886958966/

http://www.570news.com/2016/08/10/annual-commercial-vehicle-safety-blitz-takes-over-kitchener-auditorium/

http://www.570news.com/2016/08/10/annual-commercial-vehicle-safety-blitz-takes-over-kitchener-auditorium/

https://southwesternontariotrafficweather.wordpress.com/tag/commercial-trucks/

https://southwesternontariotrafficweather.wordpress.com/tag/trucks/

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4634101-opp-commercial-vehicle-safety-blitz-part-enforcement-part-education/

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4634101-opp-commercial-vehicle-safety-blitz-part-enforcement-part-education/

http://barrie.ctvnews.ca/mobile/mto-police-continue-blitz-on-commercial-trucks-on-our-highways-1.1479224

http://barrie.ctvnews.ca/mobile/mto-police-continue-blitz-on-commercial-trucks-on-our-highways-1.1479224

http://www.canadianunderwriter.ca/insurance/almost-half-of-inspected-commercial-vehicles-in-durham-region-ont-taken-off-the-road-due-to-safety-1003863966/

http://www.canadianunderwriter.ca/insurance/almost-half-of-inspected-commercial-vehicles-in-durham-region-ont-taken-off-the-road-due-to-safety-1003863966/

http://www.citynews.ca/2014/08/20/commercial-vehicle-safety-blitz-in-toronto-targeted-minorities-lawyer/

http://www.citynews.ca/2014/08/20/commercial-vehicle-safety-blitz-in-toronto-targeted-minorities-lawyer/

http://www.cp24.com/news/commercial-vehicle-safety-blitz-in-toronto-targeted-minorities-lawyer-1.1968779

http://www.cp24.com/news/commercial-vehicle-safety-blitz-in-toronto-targeted-minorities-lawyer-1.1968779

http://www.chch.com/opp-kicks-off-commercial-vehicle-safety-program/

https://www.sootoday.com/local-news/police-blitz-targets-unsafe-commercial-vehicles-131468

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