Runaway dump truck was overweight, West Vancouver police say

A Vancouver company is facing fines under the Motor Vehicle Act after a parked dump truck loaded with rocks rolled away and crashed into a neighbouring yard in West Vancouver Monday.

Commercial vehicle inspectors concluded the vehicle was overweight and its parking brake wasn’t working, according to West Vancouver police.

Luckily nobody was injured in the incident, which happened near the intersection of Mathers Avenue and 23^rd Street.

According to Sgt. Mark McLean of the West Vancouver police, the dump truck was loaded with rocks for a wall under construction at a residential property and was parked on Mathers Avenue facing west when it rolled away, despite wheel chocks that had been placed to prevent that.

McLean said the dump truck rolled approximately 40 metres into a yard on the same side of the street. Nobody was injured and there was no major property damage.

Commercial safety investigators who were on scene Monday concluded the dump truck was over its allowed gross vehicle weight and the vehicle’s emergency brake wasn’t working, said McLean.

Mathers Avenue was closed between 22nd and 24th street Monday morning while investigators attended the scene.

In February this year, an elderly man died after being struck by a commercial truck in the 800 block of Third Street in West Vancouver’s Cedardale neighbourhood. The North Shore was under heavy snowfall at the time.

Police are still waiting for reports by the RCMP’s Integrated Collison Analysis and Reconstruction Service to be completed on that investigation, said McLean.

There have been a number of crashes involving commercial dump trucks on West Vancouver’s steep hills over the years.

Five years ago, a runaway dump truck barreled down 21st Street and careened across a busy Marine Drive, miraculously avoiding hitting any other vehicles or pedestrians, before hitting trees at the side of the road near Bellevue Avenue.