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THE chairman of the Australian Trucking Association (ATA), Geoff Crouch, has called on the federal government to form a national body along the lines of the air-crash investigators at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) to delve into articulated truck crashes.

He criticised the length of time it takes for coronial enquiries to hand down their findings in truck deaths, the lack of follow-up on recommendations from coroners and the lack of a central database of potential research information arising out of these inquests.

In a recent opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, Mr Crouch highlighted the steep increase in deaths in truck crashes in NSW last year compared with declines in most other states with no apparent reason why NSW trucking should be hard hit with so many fatalities.

In the year ended September 2017, the number of deaths in NSW from crashes involving articulated trucks such as semi-trailers increased from 29 to 54 – an increase of 86 per cent.

“During the same year that deaths in NSW increased, the number of deaths in articulated truck crashes fell in Victoria by 4.5 per cent, Queensland by 14.8 per cent, South Australia by 23.1 per cent and Tasmania by 80 per cent,” Mr Crouch said.

“Although truck drivers work long hours, their work and rest times are tightly regulated. NSW has the same driver fatigue laws as Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania.

“The terrible spike in deaths in NSW and the uncertainty about why it happened shows that Australia needs a better system for investigating road crashes.

“These crashes will be the subject of coronial inquiries, but those inquiries won’t occur for years. When the coroners do make recommendations, they are likely to be noted and then implemented late, if at all.

“In contrast, the tragic Sydney Seaplanes crash is being investigated by the specialist safety investigators at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. They will release a preliminary report before the end of this month and a final report by the end of 2018. The ATSB tracks the progress of governments and industry in responding to its recommendations.

“The ATA believes that the ATSB’s role should be extended to include serious crashes involving trucks and, in future, automated vehicles.

“As the first step, the Australian government should invest $4.3 million over the next four years to establish a national database of coronial recommendations about road safety and a national database of serious truck accidents.

“The ATSB is one of the world’s leading safety investigation organisations. It is respected globally. Australia has no excuse not to apply its expertise to road safety.”

By John Mellor

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