11:00 am, Monday 8 October, 2012

Photo: SafetyCulture Library

There has been a marked increase in truck accidents on the Hume Hwy that runs between Melbourne and Sydney and there are indicators that are pointing to driver fatigue rather than other causes.

According to an ABC report a senior sergeant at Seymour Police Station is asking for additional resources to deal with driver fatigue following nine truck accidents recently in North East Victoria on the Hume with seven over a ten day period.

The Police work alongside VicRoads to make sure that trucking regulations are followed and there are concerns that because most of the accidents are single vehicles leaving the road that it is fatigue that is the main factor.

The Director of VicRoads, Davide Shelton, also expressed concern and feels that it is essential to work alongside the transport operators to learn more about what is causing the accidents as they usually have a greater understanding of the circumstances that surround an accident.

He said that there are stringent regulations that decide how many hours a truck driver can operate without resting. These regulations point liability towards the people that are involved in the supply chain logistics.

The TWU (Transport Workers Union) is saying that it is usually the drivers not the transport operators that are penalised and blamed for breaching regulations.

In a study conducted by the TWU that questioned 200 drivers, 85% said that pressure from large customers was the primary cause of unsafe driving practices.

Over 50% admitted that vehicle maintenance was delayed so they could keep working and a third of those surveyed worked 60 hours a week and 5% worked over 100 hours.

According to the TWU drivers feel compelled to breach regulations to keep their jobs.

Report by Zoe Dunbar - Do you have an OHS News Story - Let us know

01:33 pm, Tuesday 17 January, 2012

An investigation on the causes and areas where major truck accidents happen most of the time was conducted, and Western Australia has seen a significant increase in the number of road train and truck accidents.

According to a report from ABC News, Associate Professor Kim Hassall from the National Truck Accident Research Centre examined 300 truck accidents around Australia since 2009 and found that truck accidents in WA have increased significantly. Professor Hassall said that 12 percent of WA’s accidents have been fatigue-related, which is off a base of about 6 percent in 2003. “If it was to continue it would be a worrying trend,” said Prof Hassall. He further stated that more research is needed to understand what is going on.

“This doesn’t necessarily point at WA drivers, there are drivers coming in and out of WA as well. For insurance claims of $50,000 or more there has been a peak in WA in the last year.”

“What’s most startling is that most accidents, more than 70 percent, happen in the first 500km of an outward bound journey. We are really putting this one under the microscope as well.”

“Our accident database is showing a very large amount of work is done by B-doubles (a prime-mover towing two semi-trailers) but they’re only involved in one-third of the accidents that the single articulated trucks are involved in.”

“Maybe there isn’t great pressure on B-double drivers but there is one on single-arctic drivers.”

Prof Kim Hassall together with his team will continue to look into the statistics.

Report by Haydee - Do you have an OHS News Story - Let us know