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Number 1 |
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| FTLComm - McLean - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 | ||||||
A week ago today, the middle of the Easter break was a pretty ordinary day for the TransCanada highway east of Regina. In the morning a long haul semi had crashed near Balgony tying up traffic for more than an hour. This was the second of the day for that stretch of highway, just east of Mclean and yet another semi had piled up. When we arrived on the scene, around 4:00 in the afternoon, traffic was backed up about an eighth of a mile and twenty minutes later, when it was safe to get by the wreckage, the line up stretched back about three miles. With long haul traffic now the majority of all vehicles on the TransCanada and the Yellowhead single vehicle truck crashes are now so common that it would be unusual to cross Saskatchewan and not encounter at least one, or at least the mess left behind from the mishap. Owner operators make up the majority of the units on the highway and they earn about .38¢ a kilometre from which the cost of operation, insurance, fuel, driver, lodging, maintenance and the cost of the machine itself all have to be paid. With fuel prices almost at about a dollar a litre and that is pretty close to one litre a kilometre, with the wind, the pickings are pretty slim. Therefore, if you are making your way to Edmonton, Calgary, or Winnipeg in your car, pickup, or van, take a long hard look at the road maps and you will discover there are better ways to risk your life. If you avoid the TransCanada especially the terrifying stretch from Virden to Whitewood where it is two lanes bumper to trailer hitch and the almost as busy trucker route #16, the Yellowhead, you could avoid testing the air bags and your courage. |
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Corners and margins have to be cut to make ends meet and lots of wrecks are a certainty.