In the early hours of Thursday February 20, an unattended truck rolled out of the driveway of the Shell Roadhouse at Buronga and into a home across the Sturt Highway.
As a result, the prime mover has crashed through a fence and into an elderly lady’s home, crashing into her bedroom – not long after she had gotten up.
The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) shared the incident on social media after one of its safety and compliance officers (SCO) were the first on scene.
The regulator said its staff member was fuelling up at the service station when he saw what was unfolding.
“He noticed an unattended truck rolling down the servo driveway across the highway, before it crashed through a fence and into someone’s home,” the NHVR said in an online post.
“The SCO immediately ran to the house where he found an elderly lady who had narrowly escaped a very scary situation – having just got out of bed to make a coffee. The front of the prime mover was in her bedroom with the bed under the bullbar.”
The SCO contacted police to notify them that the highway was completely blocked, before calling other SCOs in the area to assist in traffic control until police arrived on the scene.
“Well done to NHVR team members involved on keeping the area safe and diverting traffic around the site to help avoid a more serious safety issue,” the NHVR added.
Re the truck rolling out of the servo in Buronga, todays generation of drivers need to be trained in the art of using a parking brake instead of wholly concentrating on using the Jake brake with illegal exhausts fitted making them loader than a Harley.
I drove interstate for 54 years and I can not believe the intelligence behind the will today.