The City of Victoria is considering requiring side guards on all city trucks to make it less likely a pedestrian or cyclist could fall under the truck and get crushed by the wheels.
A cyclist crossing Pandora Avenue near the Johnson Street bridge was hit by the rear wheel of a truck turning right from Store Street this month, while a 28-year-old cyclist was killed in Vancouver’s Yaletown in June in an incident involving a dump truck.
Coun. Stephen Andrew put forward the motion at council’s committee of the whole meeting Thursday. It will be considered at next week’s council meeting.
The motion calls for side guards — protective fenders installed between sets of wheels on large trucks — to be installed on all city-owned and contracted trucks.
Mayor Lisa Helps would also write to the federal government asking that side guards be mandatory on large, heavy and semi-trucks in urban areas, and to the province asking it to amend the Motor Vehicle Act to require mirrors that cover the front and side blind spots on large, heavy and semi-trucks in urban areas.
Last week, Vancouver city council passed a motion requiring side guards on all heavy trucks owned and contracted by the city. The mayor will also advocate to have Transport Canada make side guards mandatory across the country.
They are already mandatory in most of Europe and Britain.
Other Canadian cities have asked Transport Canada to act on side guards in the past, but the federal department has not taken any action to date.
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