Requiring side guards on trucks in Vancouver could save lives, councillors say

Two Vancouver councillors are bringing a motion forward that they say could save the lives of cyclists, pedestrians and other "vulnerable road users" in the city.

Last month, 28-year-old Agustin Beltran died after being struck by a truck downtown. Deaths like his are less likely when trucks have side guards, according to Couns. Christine Boyle and Rebecca Bligh.

Their motion coming to council notes that photos from the scene of that fatal collision show the bike "fully underneath the truck, which did not have side guards."

The safety feature, also known as a "lateral protection device" basically serves to cover the space between the front and back wheels of large trucks.

"Side guards have shown to be extremely effective at preventing fatalities and severe injuries because they prevent cyclists and pedestrians from being trapped between the truck’s wheels," the motion reads.

"Municipal action on lateral side guards could prevent tragedies happening in our city in the future."

Jeff Leigh, with HUB Cycling, is in favour of the move, saying Beltran's death shows that side guards can make a critical difference.

"He wasn’t killed from a collision with a truck, he was killed by the truck crushing him after he went underneath it," he tells CTV News.

"This feature on trucks would not have protected this crash from happening. But it has a good probability of stopping him from going underneath the truck … It's the rear wheels that killed him not the impact with the truck." 

Side guards have been mandatory in Europe since 1994.

Although mandating the installation of side guards on trucks would fall to the federal government, Boyle and Bligh say Vancouver could follow the lead of cities like Halifax by requiring them on city-owned and city-contracted vehicles.

Boyle estimates there are 400 trucks that would need to be modified, and says she understands the cost would be around $5,000 per vehicle. Using those figures, the cost to the city would be around $2 million.

"Certainly I heard concern after the most recent incident in Vancouver," she says, referring to Beltran's death.

"My hope is people want to move beyond thoughts and prayers and take action. And this is a tangible action that we can and should take."

 The councillors are also asking the mayor to write to Canada's transportation minister advocating for "the federal government to make side guards mandatory on large, heavy and semi-trucks in urban areas," the motion reads.

At the provincial level, they are asking the mayor to write to the minister of transportation to urge a change to the requirements for mirrors.

"Large vehicles and trucks with standard mirrors continue to have large blind spots at the front and immediate side of the vehicles where cyclists and pedestrians can be present and vulnerable," the motion says, adding they want the province "to require mirrors covering the front and side blind spots on large, heavy and semi-trucks in urban areas."

The motion comes in front of council next Tuesday.