Raised Dump Body Light + Sound Warning System
The Government of Quebec recently made amendments to their Highway Safety Code (chapter C-24.2)* to include provisions requiring new audible and visual alarm systems for all trucks, trailers, and semi-trailers with a dump body, including roll-on and roll-off vehicles. If your fleet of heavy dump vehicles have a height exceeding 4.15m/13.6ft when raised, the regulations are quite specific and it’s not as simple as it seems. Before you equip your fleet, use this check list to see which devices make the “compliance” cut.
All vehicles that travel through the province of Quebec, regardless of their origin, will be required to have installed a specific light and sound alarm to signal when a dump body position is not fully lowered to its safe home position.
Compliant devices must have the following Light + Sound characteristics:
Flashing Red Light:
- Be placed in the upper portion of the vehicle’s dashboard, in the driver’s line of sight.
- Have a flashing frequency between 60-120x per minute.
- Have light intensity sufficiently bright to be easily seen by the driver in day light.
- Automatically trigger when the vehicle’s power key is in the ON position, remain on until the dump body is completely lowered.
- Automatically trigger as soon as there is a malfunction of the position sensor or loss of connection to the dump body.
Audible Warning Device:
- Be placed inside the vehicle cab, easily heard while engine running and in an active work site.
- Emit continuous or intermittent sound at a frequency between 60-120x per minute.
- Emit a sound sufficiently high to be easily heard by the driver in any situation.
- Automatically trigger when the vehicle’s power key is in the ON position, remain on until the dump body is completely lowered.
- Automatically trigger as soon as there is a malfunction of the position sensor or loss of connection to the dump body.
- Can mute after at least 5 seconds of operation, remain off until the vehicle reaches speed of up to 12km/hr. Beyond this speed, it must automatically trigger again.