NSW govt warned on speeding truck fatalities – fails to act

Sydney Morning Herald page 5

“Roads Minister David Borger should move quickly to clean up the
trucking industry and put public safety first,” Ms Rhiannon said.

“The Labor government were warned 13 months ago about problems in the
RTA’s truck safety program and the rise in fatal crashes involving
trucks.

“Minister Borger should come clean with the public and explain why his
government has failed to adopt all the recommendations of the Auditor
General.

“The latest RTA report on speeding heavy vehicles and high fatality
rates underlines the government’s own failure to act when it
previously received this advice.

“The government has been sitting on the important Auditor General
report, 'Improving Road Safety - Heavy Vehicles'.

“Their failure to crack down on the trucking industry has cost lives.

“This latest report reveals that heavy vehicles that make up three per
cent of vehicles on NSW road are involved in 20 per cent of
fatalities.

"The RTA must crack down on unsafe trucks to reduce accident rates but
this is only a part solution - the best protection is to transport
more freight on rail.

"The bottom line is that freight on rail is some 20 times safer than
trucks on our roads.

"The government must boost funding to rail and upgrade and expand
freight rail infrastructure or risk a big increase in accidents and
deaths from trucks as their numbers rise.

"Last June the Auditor General highlighted big problems with the RTA's
risk management approach to trucks and its ability to detect and
respond to dangerous trucks on our roads.

“The government has failed to ensure that the RTA effectively target
its resources to upgrade truck inspections, introduce covert and overt
methods to detect breaches and adopt measures to identify all heavy
vehicles travelling in NSW,” Ms Rhiannon

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