A truck driver carrying dangerous goods who reversed on Highway 20 in the Montreal area after missing an exit has been fined by the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ). The driver missed the Saint-Mathieu-de-Belœil road safety checkpoint on the South Shore of Montreal at 6:09 p.m. on Friday. The Fraternité des constables du contrôle routier du Québec (FCCRQ), the union representing hundreds of road-safety constables and traffic control officers in the province, posted the CCTV footage that captured the incident on its Facebook page. According to the post, the tanker lorry was carrying refrigerated liquid carbon dioxide, a hazardous material. ‘It was very dangerous’ Jean-Claude Daignault, president of the union, told CTV News it was dangerous for the driver to reverse on the highway. “The driver forgot to take the exit, and he stopped his truck on the highway and went back, but there were just two lanes,” Daignault said. “It was very, very dangerous, because the truck was carrying dangerous goods.” Upon arrival at the checkpoint, road inspectors gave the driver a $1,600 fine, and the driver lost four points on their driver’s licence. The driver’s licence was also suspended for seven days. “We are lucky we didn’t have any accidents, but there could have been consequences, especially with dangerous goods,” Daignault said. Union calls on minister for action The union says the road inspectors were only able to intervene because the driver pulled over at the checkpoint. “Without this obligation, the officers would simply not have been able to intervene due to the restrictions that continue to limit their operations on the road network,” the union wrote in the post. “Today’s incident demonstrates once again the reality on the ground: had this driver not stopped at the checkpoint, he would simply have carried on his way despite the danger he posed to other road users.” The union also says this incident is not an isolated one; Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) drivers and the public regularly report equally dangerous manoeuvres on the road to the union. “However, since the court ruling that confined road inspectors to their checkpoints, they can only intervene in very limited circumstances. In the majority of cases, these drivers continue on their way without any intervention being possible,” the union wrote. “We call on the Ministry of Domestic Security: what are you waiting for? It is high time that you and your government took charge of this issue to speed up the deployment of service weapons and the implementation of corrective measures enabling road inspectors to resume their role on the road network.” Quebec minister speaks out Ian Lafrenière, Minister of Domestic Security, commented on the video, stating that the government has been working to get traffic wardens back on the roads in accordance with the Administrative Tribunal. “It is important to note that: As early as last February, we began the process of arming traffic wardens and training commenced; there are now 89 trained traffic wardens,” Lafrenière wrote. “The Administrative Court granted 27 exemptions in its ruling. It is not fair to arm traffic wardens. Under Bill 13, we have begun the process of transferring traffic wardens to the Ministry of the Interior, and this transfer will be completed in 2027.”
