Photo: Glacier Media

It took just 15 minutes for police conducting commercial vehicle checks in Burnaby Tuesday to find a truck and driver that needed to be taken off the road.

The driver was operating an 11,700-kilogram cargo truck unsupervised with a learner’s licence – a licence he didn’t actually have on him.  

Half the lights on the truck were burned out, and tape was holding together a crack in the frame, says Const. Kevin Connolly.

Last year, 40% of the more than 400 commercial vehicles pulled over and checked in Burnaby had to be taken off the road because they were unsafe, says Connolly.

“When a commercial vehicle accident happens, it’s almost always bad because of the size of these vehicles,” he said.

Officers from 14 different law-enforcement agencies across the Lower Mainland are in Burnaby for a four-day commercial vehicle enforcement blitz, with check stops set up at multiple locations.