New safety features are being mandated to reduce the risk for truck drivers. But industry members say there are other pressing issues that must be fixed to lower the number of heavy vehicle crashes in Australia.
In the lead-up to the 2022 Victorian easter weekend, 11 people had already died from road accidents in the month of April. Five of these fatalities were from the first weekend of school holidays alone. These April road accident deaths take the 2022 tally to 76 deaths on Victorian roads, a 15.2 per cent increase from the same time a year ago.
It’s no wonder Australian road safety is such a massive issue for governments and the transport industry. For heavy vehicle operators who use the roads as their workplace, the risk is ever-present.
In the federal government’s latest quarterly roads deaths in crashes involving heavy vehicles bulletin, heavy rigid truck-involved deaths rose from 18 in the September 2021 quarter to 21 by the end of the year. Five-year trend lines from the government suggest heavy vehicle-involved road deaths are increasing again after COVID-19 restrictions kept many vehicles off the road.
So far, there’s been no clear solution to the issue. The Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia (HVIA) is on the search for ways to prevent these tragic crashes. It’s launched safety campaigns and welcomed the mandating of Australian Design Rules (ADRs) on various heavy vehicle safety technology that will become compulsory for all transport operators taking to Australia’s roads.
But HVIA CEO Todd Hacking says the answer to making roads safer for heavy vehicle operators is a deeper issue than just mandating the newest truck safety technology.
“We’ve been issuing education campaigns and change management processes,” Hacking told ATN.
“We’ve found there are lots of operators who think it’ll never happen to them and that the new technology introduced will only make their lives harder.
“There’s a cultural issue and we really need to make sure we can allow all transport workers to go home safe and prevent these accidents from happening.”
These educational safety campaigns have been a constant from the likes of the HVIA over the past few years. But now the federal government’s road safety review panel is investigating if there’s a new way to make work safer for heavy vehicle operators. Recently the Australian Community Media (ACM) pushed for the government to implement two new heavy vehicle ADRs on advanced emergency braking and electronic stability control. Now the Joint Select Committee on Road Safety wants the federal government to incentivise the purchasing of newer and safer heavy vehicles to increase their affordability and take older truck models off the road.
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HVIA’s Todd Hacking
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Hacking says that more newer trucks on the road is important and can make the difference between life and death, but that incentivising the latest models isn’t a viable long-term option.
“This technology is there for when it’s really needed, as it’s there to assist people in their time of need,” he says.
“I don’t think we can keep incentivising forever, but I do believe we can improve the way incentives are directed to focus on the newest safety technology.”
This technology ranges from the recently mandated emergency braking and anti-rollover installations to LSM Technology’s tyre monitoring systems. But HVIA isn’t supporting any one piece of equipment to be included on new truck fleets, instead saying it depends on the particular transport company and its needs.
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“Our approach has been to talk about safety as a general topic,” Hacking says.
“There are lots of different safety technologies out there, but operators can’t have every feature, so we encourage them to use good information to choose what is best for their fleet.”
THE NEED FOR EDUCATION
But not everyone believes these newest safety features are the best solution to making roads safer. For Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Australia (CILTA) national chair Dr Kim Hassall, the way to combatting heavy vehicle crashes is to stop focusing solely on fatalities and serious injuries.
“Unfortunately, the federal government bureau report says there have been 177 fatal crashes involving heavy vehicles in the past year, but there’s also been 5075 major crashes, so the ratio suggests fatalities and serious injury are just the tip of the iceberg,” Hassall told ATN.
“These newest technologies mitigate the serious nature of an incident and are welcomed, but they won’t stop many of the crashes happening on the roads.”
Hassall argues that these features are a great safety addition to prevent the worst possible outcome from occurring, but technology alone won’t stop heavy vehicle road accidents from happening.
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Dr Kim Hassall
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When it comes to incentivising the purchasing of newer trucks with the latest technology, Hassall says it isn’t a strong solution because newer trucks are more prone to being involved with more crashes anyway. This is because older trucks are already being phased out by transport companies and used for shuttle work or container jobs at ports where they don’t travel the same distance as newer models do on linehaul operations. This means transport operators are already using newer trucks with updated safety features on the roads when possible.
Hassall says although the latest safety features have their place in the transport industry, they can’t be the sole focus when it comes to limiting the number of heavy vehicle collisions on Australian roads. Both Hassall and Hacking agree that educating drivers and improving their skills is fundamental to making roads safer.
“One of the big solutions that’s being worked on by Austroads is working to upskill truck drivers,” Hassall says.
“There’s a massive training and competency gap in the existing training and upskilling development for drivers currently. It’s woeful.”
According to the National Truck Accident Research Centre’s 2021 report, around 40 per cent of major crashes over the past decade involving trucks have been the fault of the driver. From Hassall’s perspective, this means just under half of the time the driver isn’t skilled enough for the situation they’ve found themselves in. He wants this to change.
Although it’s agreed around the transport industry that the latest safety features for heavy vehicles are beneficial and help save lives, a more effective way of making roads safer is to prevent dangerous crash situations from the outset. The industry says technology can’t help this and that fatigue management and driver training could be just as effective in reducing the road toll figure.
“These training programs are pivotal in ensuring truck drivers don’t get involved in road crashes,” Hassall says.
“It’s a deeper issue than just technology and Austroads is trying to fix it.”