86% of commercial vehicles deemed unsafe during inspection in southeast Calgary

Police saya safety inspection blitz on commercial vehicles in Calgary revealed that out of 158 vehicles inspected, only 22were fit to be on the road.

One driver was arrested on warrants.

Sgt. Colin Foster,head of the collision reconstruction unit with the Calgary Police Service, says the good news is that the majority of the defects found were able to befixed quickly.

"It could be something like they need an additional strap. They need to make sure that something that was on the side of the truck was put away properly," he told the Calgary Eyeopener.

"It doesn't sound good but a lot of these things can be fixed fairly quickly so that the vehicles can get back on the road and back into operation."

Vehicles pulled over ranged from small trucks all the way up todouble containers pulled by a tractor.

Foster says the numbers were a little higher than usual, but he still wasn't surprised by the outcome.

"A lot of it is trying to raise the awareness within industry to say, 'Let's get these things right so that when we do stop you, we're not inconveniencing you by taking you off the road to get these things repaired,'" he said.

"If we're finding multiple defects that are dangerous, then we start looking at, 'Do we need to issue a ticket to reinforce why these things are an issue?'"

Some bigger problems that were found were issues with brakes, says Foster.

"The driver of a motor vehicle is always responsible for the condition of the vehicle whenever he drives it, though, we also understand that there's going to be times when a company, themselves, are more responsible, and we bear that in mind,"

He says he understands many drivers are trying to make the most of every dollar, given the economy, and officers took that into consideration before issuing tickets.

"But at the end of the day, if something is so dangerous that we can't allow it to continue down the road, we will park it," said the sergeant.

Foster says that despite the many vehicles found to have issues, he does not think citizens should be concerned.

"Commercial vehicle traffic is actually fairly safe," he said.

"I think it's one of those things, just be aware, if it's a windy day, tryto avoid going anywhere near a commercial vehicle because they're going to be affected by the wind that's coming from the side of them."

As well, he says if the load on a trailer or truck doesn't look right, stay clear and report it to police.

"Tell us where that vehicle is so we can try to intercept it and make sure that the load is safe and that the drivingis safe for that vehicle."

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener.