This veteran interstate truck driver was given quite the fright while travelling along the Bruce Highway, heading north towards Ilbilbie, yesterday afternoon.
Peter Edwards, 56, told Big Rigs, “I was coming around the corner and then all of a sudden, there was this huge pothole.
“I thought I was going to tip it. The sun visors both fell down, the windscreen cracked and if you look at the right hand side of the truck, the suspension looks like it’s a bit lower than it is on the left hand side – luckily it’s still drivable.”
Edwards, who has been a truckie for the past 30 years, is based in Archerfield, Queensland. Working for Conshift, he travels along the east coast, carrying mining equipment.
He believes the pothole measured around 2ft wide by 6ft long and about 6 inches deep.
“I noticed a car pull up too and their front steer tyre did not look very healthy,” added Edwards, who reported the pothole to Transport and Main Roads.
“To their credit, they were out there this morning doing repairs in about the same spot where I had to mishap, fixing it up. Credit where credit’s due,” he said.
“But now the company has to fork out on a new windscreen, courtesy of the Queensland Government. I don’t blame the road workers, it’s the number crunchers higher up.”
Despite the damage to his truck, Edwards believes that overall the condition of the Bruce Highway isn’t actually that bad. “It could be better but it’s not generally that horrid. You’ve got nearly 800km of road, so it’s not going to be a perfect road. I think the biggest killer on this road is driver attitude. My father always said to me, you’re better off being 5 minutes late than dead on time.”
I’ve lost count of the number of windscreens we’ve smashed on the Bruce Highway. The state of this road is disgraceful .