Article content continued

About half of the accidents on the bridge are minor crashes that do not result in injuries, according to a report from district staff to the councillors. But because the bridge is near capacity, frequent accidents can result in heavy delays, said David Stuart, the chief administrative officer at the district.

“Our experience is that even if it’s a minor fender-bender or even a stall … you have this immediate effect, and it’s not only up the ‘cut’ or backing up into Highway 1 South, but all our east or west routes are all of a sudden impacted,” he said.

North Shore municipalities, the City of Vancouver, police, paramedics, firefighters and transportation ministry staff, among others, came together last year to brainstorm ideas to help ease the pain.

Among the ideas is an agreement between firefighters that crews in Vancouver will respond to northbound accidents and those in the district will respond to southbound crashes. Prior to the agreement, the jurisdictional boundaries rested in the middle of the bridge. The shift is intended to reduce overall response times as well as the number of cases where firefighters from both sides of the bridge respond.

Another is a plan to have firefighters respond to minor accidents and determine from there which other services are required at the scene. Only police can require a car to be towed, so a legislative or regulatory change may be needed for firefighters to be able to clear a scene without a police presence, Stuart said.