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Some winter motoring magic |
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Written by Gerald Gauthier LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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Wednesday, December 16 2009, 8:41 PM |
While many motorists fight a losing battle for traction on wintry city streets, Lethbridge firefighters get a better grip with the help of innovative gadgets installed on city fire trucks.
When they feel their fire trucks slip-sliding or bogging down in deep snow, drivers can simply flick a switch, and flexible, spoke-like chainwheels will pop down from under the truck chassis to provide instant traction.
The Onspot automatic tire chains provide similar traction to a single set of conventional snow chains without having to stop the vehicle.
“They help minimize the risk of getting stuck,” said Lethbridge Fire Chief Brian Cornforth.
A switch mounted in the cab of the fire truck lowers a chainwheel on the inside of each set of rear tires. The friction between the tires and each rubber-coated chainwheel causes the chainwheel to rotate, creating enough centrifugal force to flail the chains out in front of the tires.
Six lengths of chain spaced at equal intervals on the chainwheel are designed to ensure two chains are always between the tire and road surface whether fire trucks are accelerating or braking. The devices work in forward or reverse. When the dashboard switch is turned off, the devices retract back up into their resting place against the truck chassis.
Cornforth noted the devices aren’t much help, however, after a fire truck has gotten stuck and can’t move.
The devices were invented in Sweden in 1977 and introduced to North America in the late 1980s. They’ve been used on local fire trucks for several years.
On smaller rescue vehicles and ambulances, he said, the department relies simply on snow tires.
Although Alberta Transportation recommends the use of snow tires, they aren’t required equipment for Alberta motorists or emergency services agencies. The ministry lets police, fire and ambulance services decide for themselves whether to install snow tires on their vehicles.
Lethbridge regional police use all-season tires on their vehicles. One Herald reader reported that he helped push out a couple of police cars recently after they got stuck.
“Our police vehicles aren’t equipped with winter tires and there’s no immediate plans to get them,” said police spokesman Kristen Harding.
“The cost involved is quite prohibitive and it’s something we just can’t justify to the taxpayers because there are really only a few weeks when there’s snow on the ground, and the rest of the year the pavement is dry. At the end of the day, the fact that we don’t have snow tires doesn’t impact our ability to effectively police Lethbridge and Coaldale in the wintertime.”
Police estimate the initial cost to equip all police cars with snow tires would be about $60,000 plus the additional costs for installation, removal and storage every year as well as replacement when they wear out.
Police maintain that their use of all-season tires rather than snow tires doesn’t undermine their own repeated appeals for the public to be prepared for winter driving.
“We advise members of the public to adjust their driving habits according to the road conditions and we have the same expectations of our officers,” Harding said.
Meanwhile, a Calgary alderman is calling on that city to lobby the provincial government to make snow tires mandatory in winter.
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