Enforcement happy with condition of state’s fleet despite driver facing charges for offences from 2018
The NSW Police traffic taskforce undertook its first major heavy vehicle compliance blitz of 2019 recently, completing another round of Operation Impact.
Deployed to Armidale Police Area Command (Western region), the operation covered Monday January 14 to Friday January 18.
Ninety heavy vehicles were checked, including 15 engine control module downloads, all of which were compliant, while only three seatbelt infringements and 18 other minor infringements were issued.
Of 285 random breath tests and 125 mobile drug tests, only a 45-year-old P1 licence holding male driver tested positive, to cannabis.
“The results show a pleasing level of compliance, which is certainly a positive sign, and reflective of the downward trend in heavy vehicle related fatalities on our roads,” NSW Police stakeholder relations manager Phillip Brooks tells ATN.
Driver charged
The blitz, however, was followed by an announcement that a driver who was inspected on August 14, 2018, is now facing 27 charges relating to work diary and rest offences.
The 55-year old male from Queensland was driving a B-double for an unnamed Victorian company, with registration from that state, on the Hume Highway in Menangle in southwest NSW, when he was intercepted by the South West Metro Highway Patrol and directed to an RMS inspection site.
NSW Police also inspected a firm after a truck rollover recently. Read more, here
“An inspection of the work diary revealed a significant number of issues including pages not signed, duplicate sheets not returned as required, excessive work hours, insufficient rest periods, pages not dated and other record keeping issues. As a result, the work diary was seized by police for further analysis,” NSW Police Traffic and Highway Patrol Command reports.
The full list of charges includes:
- one count of not recording prescribed information after starting work, incorporating nine offences
- one count of not recording information as prescribed, incorporating 11 offences
- one count of not providing information to the record keeper, incorporating 59 offences
- six offences of working more than standard maximum hours, ranging from substantial to critical breaches
- eight counts of resting less than the standard minimum time, ranging from substantial to critical
- 10 counts of making a false entry in work diary, incorporating 13 offences.
The driver will appear at Campbelltown Local Court February 26.