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ICBC updates total claims from Trail acid spills

Approximately 4,400 claims so far
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ICBC says of the 4,400 claims it has received over the acid spills in Trail, about 10 per cent of the vehicles have been written off.

That equates to approximately 440 vehicles taken off the road since the initial spill last April.

“While we are still getting new claims being filed, the number of new claims is dwindling as time goes on,” Lindsay Wilkins, ICBC spokesperson, told the Trail Times last month.

She said in a press release on Friday that ICBC filed and served its Notice of Civil Claim (NOCC) back in October.

“We have received responses from most defendants, but not all,” Wilkins said in the release. “No trial date has been set.”

In the NOCC, the company listed three entities, or defendants, as “negligent parties.”

Collectively identified as “Corporate Defendants” are Westcan Bulk Transport, International Raw Materials (IRM), the U.S company that buys sulphuric acid from Teck, and Teck itself.

The two commercial truck drivers who operated the Westcan vehicles during the spills are also named in the claim.

The City of Trail and the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary are collectively named as the “Municipal Defendants.”

And the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and Ministry of Environment, are named and collectively identified as “Crown Defendants.”

The two acid spills occurred last year.

On April 10, approximately 220 litres of sulphuric acid was inadvertently spilled along a 16-kilometre (km) stretch of Highway 3B beginning at the Rossland Avenue intersection and ending at the Waneta reload centre (truck to train).

On May 23, approximately 70 litres of acid was intermittently leaked over a 6-km distance of Highway 3B starting from the Rossland Avenue intersection and ending near Highway Drive in Glenmerry.