Eleven trucks confiscated in Kuujjuaq

ODILE NELSON

Provincial vehicle inspectors impounded 11 commercial trucks in Kuujjuaq last week for failing to meet safety standards.

Inspectors from the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) travelled to Nunavik at the request of the Kativik Regional Police Force. Police invited the inspectors after receiving numerous complaints from residents about the run-down condition of trucks that had arrived for the annual summer construction season.

SAAQ inspectors examined 12 vehicles in all and eventually confiscated 11 for a variety of serious defects, including faulty brakes and shaved off dry shafts, KRPF chief Brian Jones told Nunatsiaq News.

Southern construction companies owned many of the confiscated vehicles, Jones said, but some were the property of the Village of Kuujjuaq and local contractors.

Jones declined to identify which southern companies owned the vehicles but said the inspection was a community safety issue.

“I think it was a public hazard – with the amount of people in the community now, with the number of young kids playing and summer camps and the amount of construction going on right now too,” he said.

This summer construction sites in Kuujjuaq include the airport and construction of a new school, Jones said.

Owners will have to repair their trucks and have them re-inspected before police allow them back on the road.

The one-time inspection has highlighted a need for more routine exams of heavy vehicles that arrive in Nunavik.

Jones said the SAAQ and KRPF will now work together to establish a biannual, region-wide inspection schedule for trucks in Nunavik.

“We want to make the roads safer in Nunavik because of the growing population and also because the communities’ roads will be paved over the coming years [and more heavy vehicles will be on the roads]” Jones said.

The SAAQ should issue a full report in the next two weeks, Jones said.