***Original published in South Mountain Press, December 21, 2018***
Remember to Properly Secure Bale Loads
Due to this summer’s drought and the wet fall, area farmers are short on their usual stocks of hay and straw for their cattle productions. Area residents have probably noticed an increase in truck and trailer traffic hauling large round bales to local farm operations. Motorists may have also noticed an uptick in lost loads resulting in straw or hay debris hopefully ending up in the ditch versus a bale exploding in front of their vehicle.
Under Section 61(2) of the Manitoba Highway Traffic Act ‘No person shall operate, or permit to be operated, upon a highway any motor vehicle or trailer unless the load that the motor vehicle or trailer is carrying is firmly bound, sufficiently covered, or otherwise secured or loaded, in such a manner that no portion of the load may become dislodged or fall from the motor vehicle or trailer.’
Further in the Traffic Act, it describes how it is an offence if a highway is damaged by an unsecured load leaving a vehicle. Then under the Criminal Code of Canada if a spilled load causes injury or death, the person could be charged with criminal negligence.
Now if a police officer notices an obvious problem with a vehicle’s load, the vehicle would be pulled over and ticketed. For example, fines have been levied against Manitoba drivers for driving with excessive snow piled on their vehicles. If a semi hauling straw bales was losing them all over the highway, they could also be ticketed.
But thankfully, motorist’s encounters with spilled loads rarely involve injury or death. According to the Manitoba Public Insurance Traffic Collision Statistic Reports, the five year average (2011-2015) for accidents caused by loads shifted/spilled only resulted in 2 injuries and 17 Property Damage Only (PDO) incidents. Although there was a bit of an uptick in the 2017 numbers to 3 injuries and 34 PDOs, the totals only represent 0.05% of the over 68,000 Manitoba vehicle collisions.
As for clearing up a spill of straw or other material, the adage of ‘you messed it up, you clean it up’ applies. In the case of large bales, especially straw bales, they tend to explode upon impact with the ground and can make a huge mess. Even if the bale remains intact after falling off, equipment to reload the bale would rarely be available. In those cases, the most expedient and practical remedy for clean-up is to just light the bale on fire. Of course, lighting anything on fire next to a highway can cause numerous other problems such as obscuring smoke, burning debris, and out of control grass fires.
In the cases where the offending driver has just left the mess, the responsibility for cleanup falls to either Manitoba Highways or the Rural Municipality depending on the jurisdiction the road falls under.
Losing the load that you are transporting can end up being expensive and dangerous. Drivers need to take the extra time to ensure that they are operating safely.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.