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Commercial vehicle inspection branch brings the heat
Patrick Keller
Lakeside Leader
A joint enforcement effort that included commercial vehicle inspectors, carrier services investigators and Alberta Sheriffs made real headway during a two day blitz between August 12 and 13., at the weigh station east of Slave Lake.
Sheriff’s vehicles flanked either side of the highway and commercial inspectors worked the scales, but they were both aided by a very conspicuous looking van parked in the grass in front of the weigh station: Commercial Vehicle Enforcement’s “Thermal Imaging Unit.”
One of just three units operating in Alberta, the vans are the crown jewel of commercial vehicle enforcement, with a price tag of nearly half a million dollars each.
But it’s not the price tag that enforcement officers are gushing about. The real worth of the van, officers say, is the lives it saves with its bevy of high tech gadgetry.
The vans are equipped with a Forward Looking Infra Red (FLIR) camera, able to spot heat differentials up to two kilometers away. The camera looks fairly simple from the outside; a black orb mounted on an articulated arm, able to rotate 360 degrees.
Inside the van, a very tidy and complete recording studio captures video all day long, without skipping a frame. On the desk, one monitor shows a normal colour display of activity outside the van, while a second monitor shows the FLIR imagery in basic black and white. Black is cool, and the whiter the white, the hotter is the temperature coming from the target; this measuring of thermal energy emitted from an object is known as “thermography.”
Officer Mark Sproule is one of nine people in Alberta trained to operate the system and has been with commercial vehicle enforcement for almost four years.
“This is really amazing technology,” said Sproule. “Not only can it spot stuff like faulty brakes or overheating components, it can spot a flat tire.”
On an 18 wheeler, spotting a flat can be tricky but crucial. “Imagine a Super B (a double long tractor trailer) hauling fuel down the highway.” he says. “If it is traveling 100 kilometres an hour, fully loaded, and gets a blow out it could be a catastrophe.”
And, says Sproule, the possibilities for infrared camera technology can be extended well beyond hot brakes.
“Imagine this kind of technology being used for search and rescue,” he said.
People who have become lost in the woods, or the snow would stand a real chance of being picked up by the sensitive, heat seeking eye of the FLIR camera, thinks Sproule.
So, how effective is it?
Sgt. Rob Livingston of Slave Lake’s Commercial Vehicle Inspection station reports that 31 vehicles were taken out of service over the two-day blitz.
Of course, real people made the inspections and the final decisions, but the camera helped to spot trouble before it got out of hand.
By everyone’s account, the camera is saving lives.
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