RMS officers and police across NSW, Qld, Vic, SA and ACT find range of offences
The “largest ever” heavy vehicle blitz resulted in 2,000 defect notices being issued across eastern states and territories including South Australia yesterday.
NSW Police with the assistance of NSW Roads & Maritime Services (RMS), Victorian, Queensland, ACT, and South Australian police forces inspected over 5,000 trucks as part of Operation Rolling Thunder.
The compliance operation was in direct response to a two-day period from January 15-16, when three unrelated heavy vehicle crashes in NSW at Jackadgery, Cooranbong and Brocklehurst, resulted in the deaths of five people.
The operation began at 6am and concluded after 10pm.
During the operation police from all states and RMS inspectors combined:
- stopped and inspected over 5,000 heavy vehicles
- issued over 2,000 defect notices for a range of offences
- tested 1,752 drivers for drugs, with 26 returning positive tests.
NSW police traffic & highway patrol command assistant commissioner Michael Corboy says the sheer number of defects and the number of drivers testing positive for drugs shows that there is still too many dangerous trucks on our roads.
“To have more than two thousand defects issued in a single day within the heavy-vehicle industry, shows that there is a lot of work to be done to ensure trucks are safe on our roads,” Corboy says.
“The fact that we also caught 26 drivers who tested positive for drugs is just a disgrace.
“While many trucking companies and drivers are doing the right thing and operating under the right processes, these results show that there are still too many dangerous trucks and dangerous drivers on our roads.
“While the operation has concluded, our work has only just begun.
“We will be following up with companies, drivers and operators who think they are above the law and we won’t stop until we can be sure that all trucks on our roads are safe for all road users.”
More to come