'Be patient': B.C. trucker has Hwy 3 concerns but says it's getting better

• Trucker says some drivers are impatient
• Welcomes increased enforcement by police
• Does not recommend opening route to non-essential travel yet

A long-time B.C. truck driver says the journey along Highway 3 is getting better since the fatal start to the key route’s reopening following atmospheric river induced landslides in mid-November.

But driver impatience and the threats of harsh winter weather remain a concern along the route that continues to be restricted to commercial vehicles and essential trips only.

Derek Blaiklock regularly drives his 72-foot, 46-ton tractor trailer rig from Nanaimo to Winnipeg using the Trans-Canada – Coquihalla – Trans-Canada route. But like many commercial truckers, he is now reliant on Highway 3.

It’s a road he’s travelled countless times in a near 30-year career, but he said some drivers continue to go too fast and it’s not only inexperienced ones doing the wrong thing.

Experienced drivers showing impatience

“Sometimes it’s the ones with more experience maybe, who you hear on the VHF radio, who would be complaining sometimes about people going too slowly, and they should get off the road,” Blaiklock told Kelowna10.

He said some drivers are also overtaking where they shouldn’t.

“There’s no point in passing because you’re going to encounter another truck within half a kilometre ahead anyhow, and so you just may as well stay in line,” he said.

Transport Minister Rob Fleming has repeatedly called on users to slow down and drive to conditions on a highway that is simply not in the same state it was before.

Several steps were taken in consultation with the trucking industry to make things safer, including increased police enforcement and signage, and even special maps drawn up for less experienced truckers.

Blaiklock said it all seems to be having an impact as there's been no major shutdowns since the series of fatal incidents late November,

“Concentrating [enforcement] on that highway is a good thing. I’d say it has got better,” Blaiklock said, but added the worst of the winter weather has yet to arrive.

“I’m a little bit worried that when we have a decent snowstorm – the first two weeks of snow - we have a lot of accidents because people aren’t used to it.”

Officials are warning of an approaching snowstorm that will hit Highway 3 in the coming days.

Too early to allow non-essential travel

The transport minister has repeatedly said Highway 3 is not ready for regular passenger leisure travel and restrictions will continue.

Blaiklock agrees.

“If it was opened up fully there would be a lot more traffic, so I’d exercise caution on when it fully opens. Particularly with Christmas and people wanting to travel, I’d say it probably has to wait until Highway 1 opens through the [Fraser] Canyon and Lytton for instance.”

Blaiklock was speaking before an announcement late Thursday morning by Fleming who said the earlier than expected restoration of the Coquihalla highway - by early-January to commercial traffic only - would then free up Highway 3 for non-essential travel.

The damaged section of the Trans-Canada Highway through the Fraser Canyon could re-open by mid-January.

Blaiklock asked everyone to be patient in the meantime.

“We’re all doing our best. It’s a difficult time, obviously, with the storms and COVID on top of that. The main thing is to be patient. Stuff is getting through, and as long as people drive safely through Highway 3 that should continue.”