BITRE stats show promise after period of incidents that went against the trend of other heavy vehicles
The rate of fatal heavy rigid crashes has joined that of articulated trucks on a downward path for the first time in more than a year.
The latest quarterly Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) figures, for April-June 2013, show what is to be hoped is the passing of an upward trend for heavy rigids that went against those for articulated trucks and buses.
While monthly fatal heavy rigid crashes peaked in the last quarter of 2012 at 27, the first two quarters of last year saw just 15 in each.
However, longer term, the picture was more alarming
The Bureau states that fatal crashes involving heavy rigid trucks increased by 5.6 per cent compared with the corresponding period one year earlier and increased by an average of 8.1 per cent per year over the three years to June 2013.
Against that, despite a spike in the September quarter of 2012 to 40, fatal articulated truck crashes in the March and June quarters of 2013, were at 18 and 21.
Such crashes decreased by 5.3 per cent compared with the corresponding period one year earlier and decreased by an average of 6.8 per cent per year over the three years to June 2013.