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Trucking safety not good enough, Queensland Police says

Queensland Police lists trucking as a “priority focus”, saying safety record is not good enough despite efforts to lift standards

June 30, 2011

Queensland Police says it will continue to target the trucking industry on safety standards in the wake of a multi-agency operation focused on the sector.

Involving police forces across Australia and New Zealand, Operation Austrans honed in on safety issues within the transport industry during May.

Despite a 49.3 percent increase in interceptions (up to 13,898), the police force was alarmed to find that offences detected increased by 85 percent compared to last year’s operation.

During the operation, Queensland Police says 26 drink drivers were intercepted with 45 other criminal offences also detected.

“Despite efforts by the industry to improve safety standards, there are still too many deaths and serious injuries with 258 people killed as the result of 212 crashes involving heavy vehicles last financial year,” Queensland Police says.

“The issue remains a priority focus for police as part of ongoing efforts to improve community safety and reduce road trauma involving heavy vehicles.”

However, Queensland Police also acknowledged that industry efforts to improve safety had led to a decline in fatal crashes in recent years.

It says there was an average decrease of 4.1 percent in fatal crashes involving articulated trucks per year over the three years to June 2010.

Furthermore, Queensland Police says there was a 31.2 percent fall in fatal crashes involving heavy rigid trucks between the 2009 and 2010 financial years.

“Overall, there was an average decrease in fatal crashes of 3.1 percent per year over the three years to June 2010,” it says.

Queensland Police says Operation Austrans was part of a number of road safety initiatives launched in support of the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety, which is designed to stabilise and then reduce global road deaths by 2020.

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