Bird hunters warned to target safety on area logging roads

With bird hunting season now in full swing here, hunters will be frequenting area back roads as part of their search for game like partridge.
But if they plan to use logging roads, Melanie Mathieson and other members of the Rainy River District Logging and Safety Committee are urging hunters to drive with caution to avoid potentially serious accidents with trucks hauling wood out of the bush.
“With hunting season, there are a lot more people going into the bush who don’t know the rules of the road,” Mathieson said.
These include the fact outbound traffic has the right-of-way. But she also noted a two-way radio system is in place so drivers of logging trucks can broadcast their position on the road, and monitor where other ones are, so both have fair warning before they meet each other.
Most hunters don’t possess this key safety element, increasing the risk of an unexpected meeting between a pulp truck and half-ton–most likely on a corner.
But even if hunters have two-way radios, they shouldn’t rely solely on them when traveling a logging road, RRDLS committee secretary John Bagacki said last week.
“Even the ones that do have radios, don’t just drive to the radio, drive to the road conditions, too,” he stressed.
Bagacki, who works with Abitibi-Consolidated’s Woodlands division as a fibre procurement co-ordinator, said there have been a lot of close calls between hunters and trucks on logging roads over the years.
And most of those near-misses happened on curves.
“A [logging] truck has no chance to stop on a hill or curve, and if a hunter jumps out of his truck without moving it over to the side of the road, it’s dangerous,” he warned.
“Most close calls do happen on curves,” agreed Mathieson. “There are not two full lanes and no shoulders on most of these bush roads.
“[The load] is heavy and shifts all the time, and even though [the drivers] work hard to see they are the safest they can be, they can’t stop on a dime,” she added.
“Pull over and allow them to pass. You don’t have to crash into the bush but do whatever it takes,” she stressed.
Leon DeGagne of Leon DeGagne Ltd. here said although his logging operations haven’t met with any major problems during hunting season, he advised hunters to keep some simple but safe habits in mind.
“I think most seasoned hunters know the roads and are courteous [to logging trucks], but there’s always the odd one that isn’t,” he said.
“The number one rule is to drive slow and drive on the right side of the road and not the centre,” he cautioned.