The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) is reminding truckies to follow work and rest requirements ahead of a week-long “campaign” to reduce fatigue-related crashes on national roads.
The regulator said its campaign, which runs September 18-23 across NSW, is part of its “regulatory strategy to inform, educate and enforce – whether via on-road compliance or industry engagement.”
In the past year there have been 48 fatalities from heavy vehicle crashes in NSW, with approximately 65 per cent of fatal crashes occurring outside the metropolitan area.
Operation Drive Time will see NHVR safety and compliance officers focus on heavy vehicle driver fatigue, work diary and heavy vehicle speed compliance for all fatigue-regulated heavy vehicles across NSW.
NHVR director of operations central region Brett Patterson said heavy vehicle driver fatigue was one of the three biggest killers.
“As part of our inform, educate and enforce approach we are working with industry to raise better awareness of the extreme risk that fatigue presents,” Patterson said.
“Our aim is to have a strong engagement and education presence – from formal events to random roadside inspections – with a focus on promoting safe industry behavior.
“With the road toll spiking in almost every state and territory over the past 12 months, the safety of all drivers on the road is our number one priority.”
Patterson said the NHVR had a strong focus on educating heavy vehicle drivers on work diary requirements, however, where the NHVR identifies a fatigue safety risk, appropriate compliance measures will be applied.
“During the past nine months, over 1400 hours of roadside education has been undertaken on work diaries with heavy vehicle drivers,” Patterson said.
“If we’re to reduce fatigue-related incidences in heavy vehicle drivers on Australian roads, then operations which focus on drivers carrying their work diaries is critical.”
NHVR said it is committed to educating heavy vehicle drivers on the main causes of fatigue, and wants drivers to know some of the main signs can include:
- A lack of alertness
- Inability to concentrate
- Drowsiness, falling asleep or micro-sleeps
- Difficulty keeping your eyes open, excessive head nodding or yawning
- Blurred vision
- Near miss or incident
- Not keeping in a single lane
- Not maintaining a constant speed
Why is it when they put up crash statistics like 48 fatalities and 65% out side the cities that they don’t put in that the majority of the crashes were caused by the car or other smaller vehicles being the root cause and not the truck or the drivers and also remember that every year there are a lot more vehicles on our roads now than 5 years ago just keep things up to date and don’t always blame the truck drivers