Queensland transport minister takes a shot at truck drivers, claiming they are still striking bridges despite receiving alerts in advance
By Brad Gardner | July 26, 2013
Truck drivers in Queensland are continuing to strike bridges in the State, despite receiving advanced alerts their rigs are too high to pass safely under the structures.
Queensland Transport Minister Scott Emerson says the Government has installed technology on rail bridges to alert drivers of an impending collision, but many are ignoring the message.
A fed up Emerson yesterday labelled drivers who ignore the warnings as “idiots” and pleaded with them to check the roads they were travelling on, the height of the bridge or bridges on the route and the height of the truck’s load.
“Still we are seeing, over and over again, examples of bridges being hit by trucks and causing that damage. These people are idiots. They are idiots that they keep doing this,” Emerson says.
“They know how high a bridge is and they know how high their truck is. They should know better but we are seeing those idiots hit our bridges, causing immense disruption to our public transport system and damaging our infrastructure.”
Emerson says collisions force the closure of bridges and can inconvenience public transport users for hours and sometimes days while safety assessments are carried out.
He made the comments during a Budget estimates hearing yesterday.
The Queensland Government earlier this year announced $1 million to trial technology at rail crossings to reduce incidents, including using a system that wirelessly detects the presence of trains and alerts the driver through an announcement over their radio.
