Articulated trucks stay on the right path still but not as fast
Rigid trucks, for so long the recalcitrant class in heavy vehicle crash fatalities, are now showing the way, Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) statistics for the July-September quarter show.
During the 12 months to the end of September 2020, fatalities involving heavy trucks as a whole dropped 9.5 per cent when compared with the corresponding 12-month period one year earlier and decreased by an average of 4.2 per cent per year over the three years to September 2020.
Fatalities involving heavy rigid trucks decreased 14.6 per cent compared with the same period last year and by an average of 6 per cent per year over the same three years.
But articulated truck crash fatalities fell 4 per cent over the corresponding period and by an average of 5.6 per cent per year over the three years.
Read about the latest NSW heavy-duty truck crash stats here
At 162 fatalities for both configurations, the 12 months to this September is the lowest in the past 10 years, a period that began with 205 and jumped to 220 before starting a steady if uneven fall.
Ten years ago, articulated fatalities were at their lowest, with 67, but peaked in 2016 and 2018 with 88 before sliding to 70 this September. Articulateds began that stretch at 148 before finding resistance in 2018 at 92, rising to 99 and ending at 95.
Fatal crashes mirror the fatalities and these show a 9.6 per cent drop to 66 compared with the previous 12 month, while, here anyway, articulated trucks were ahead, down 11 per cent to 81.
But, as a further indication of where heavy rigids are coming from, while the percentage decrease on the past 10 year and past three years for articulateds are -4.3 and -5.5, for rigids, those figures are +1.4 and -6.2.