Interesting sequel to Hume Highway accident

new2ford · 23-02-2012, 11:28 PM

In today's news an interesting outcome of the recent crash in which a rig crossed to the wrong side of the road and killed a family of three:

http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/d...223-1tpnd.html

Quote:

Dump your truck: police tell of phone order to drivers
Rachel Olding
February 23, 2012 - 4:05PM

Drivers employed by the trucking company Lennons Transport Services have allegedly deserted their trucks and run as more illegally modified vehicles are tracked down and seized by investigators.

Police have now tracked down all of the company's 34 trucks across the country and say they have found many with speed limiters that have been tampered with to allow the trucks to travel above their 100km/h limit.

Overnight, Liverpool Highway Patrol officers located an unattended truck parked beside the Hume Highway at Casula.
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Police will allege a mobile phone found inside the cab contained a message instructing the driver not to return to base.

Another truck was found at a premises in Wetherill Park without its driver.

Yesterday, Victorian Police found a truck abandoned on the side of the road. The driver had fled the scene and his log book was found in a nearby rubbish bin.

The phone number for Lennons headquarters in Enfield in western Sydney has been disconnected and the company's owner, Tony Lennon, has not responded to email requests from the Herald for comment.

Two trucks were intercepted by police and the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) on the Hume Highway in the southern highlands this morning, one after it failed to stop at a heavy vehicle checking station.

They were tracked down by Polair and escorted to the RMS inspection station at Marulun, near Goulburn.

The latest developments follow an unprecedented joint raid by police and RMS yesterday on the company's Enfield depot as part of their investigation into a fatal truck crash in Menangle on January 24.

Vincent Samuel George, 33, who worked for Lennons, has been charged with three counts of dangerous driving occasioning death over the crash on the Hume Highway that killed Donald and Patricia Logan, both 81, and their son Calvyn, 59.

Police will allege he was driving a truck at high speed after its speed limiter had been illegally modified, a practice that was systemic and "sanctioned from above" by the company.

Officers attached to Traffic and Highway Patrol Command and RMS inspectors launched Operation Marshall following the crash.

Police have allegedly found manipulated speed limiters on at least eight Lennons trucks.

They have also allegedly found falsified log books.

One driver who was pulled over near Marulun yesterday was allegedly in possession of cannabis and has been charged with severe fatigue-related offences after he had reportedly been driving for 17 hours in one day.

The NSW Police Force and the RMS are working with interstate authorities to locate four of the company's trucks, which remain on the roads.

The company's business practices will also come under the microscope as part of a broader chain-of-responsibility investigation by the RMS, the police have said.

No heavy vehicle trucks in Australia are allowed to travel above 100km/h and, since 1998, all new heavy vehicles are fitted with mechanical and computerised speed limiters to prevent them from reaching speeds above 100km/h.

Police have alleged the speed limiters in eight of Lennon's trucks had been tampered with to allow the vehicles to travel at speeds of up to 150km/h.

The vehicle's pulse wheel is tampered with which impacts on the speed limiting system of the truck.

Even more interesting reading this story and then going to the company's website:

http://www.lennons.com.au/

and reading some pages, particularly relating to safety and risk management!

How many of us have been doing 100 and passed by a truck like we're going backwards? Only hope that this leads to reforms but somehow doubt it, the way things are.

mik · 24-02-2012, 12:06 AM

very sad for the family`s and the occupant`s of the car, it appears the driver fell asleep, i suspect nothing to do with speed.

**Mechan1k** · 24-02-2012, 12:24 AM

It's a shame that a company was blatantly doing this sort of thing.

Brings a bad name to all the decent truck drivers out there on our roads.

Bushbasher · 24-02-2012, 01:00 AM

I bet there are more than a few trucks being hastily "de-tampered" as we speak for fear that the authorities will go on a rampage and check everyone once they've finished with Lennons. Let's hope the hunt goes beyond hammering the truckies who in more than a few cases are held to ransom and pressured into doing the tampering and speeding and the log book fiddling just to meet the unrealistic expectations of the real culprits who demand the fresh food and want to keep the prices down down down.

Mind you, if the real culprits are forced to stop holding a gun to the truckies heads I guess they'll just hold the gun to our heads at the bowser instead to keep the profit margin u.....oh wait, that's already happening............

pottery beige · 24-02-2012, 07:57 AM

been going on for years.....

chevypower · 24-02-2012, 08:00 AM

Wow, the government continues to always knows what is best for all of us. How lucky we all are to have the government protect us.

prydey · 24-02-2012, 08:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by new2ford

How many of us have been doing 100 and passed by a truck like we're going backwards?

i don't do a lot of interstate driving but do drive to bris (from adelaide) every year, and very rarely have i ever been passed by a truck in a 100 zone and probably never in a 110 zone.

these guys are a minority.

2011G6E · 24-02-2012, 08:40 AM

You've never been overtaken by a semi???
Don't know where you drive, but out here and along most of the Bruce Highway in central Queensland heavy semis that regularly go over 100 or 110kph are in the majority...I've followed big triples out west doing 130-plus, I've been overtaken and run off the road twice (once in my Celica, the other on my GSX1400 bike) when I've been doing 110 and a B-double has attempted to overtake and had to pull in when only halfway past me when traffic approached from the other way. I rang the cops about these two incidents, and they took the reports but said in a frustrated tone "We'll call the companies, but it's your word against theirs, and I've gotta tell you we get a lot of reports like this, but there's not a lot we can do. Sorry".

Not to mention the wonderful way they will happily tailgate you meters away, while at the same time telling use gravely not to tailgate them, as they gravely remind us how long it takes them to stop. I am assuming that if they are sitting right up your **** and you have to brake suddenly, they won't pull up quickly either? I was involved in a crash on the highway south of Rocky around New Years when a line of traffic was stopped for a truck rollover up ahead, on a long straight stretch near Bajool, when two cars behind me there was an almighty crash, as a b-double dump truck had barelled along and not even slowed down for the obviously stopped line of cars ahead of him. The big brave boy didn't steer off the road out of harms way...instead he steered straight into the on-coming traffic and had a head on with a pantech furniture van. Basically, if these things take so long to stop, shouldn't they be more careful than anyone else on the road, taking their time, going steadily to ensure they have plenty of room to stop?

The old lie about "it's the companies forcing us to speed" is just plain wrong as well...it's illegal to try and make someone else break the law for you, and if as claimed you have been given a schedule that means you couldn't possibly
get to where you are going without breaking the strict fatigue rules or speeding, then take it to the police as evidence and the owners will get into serious trouble, not you.

Trucks used to all have "100 speed limited" on the back...I haven't seen one for years now.
Then there's the fact that when B-doubles were first introduced, we were assured these monsters would never go on main highways...they would be solely used out west. Now they're everywhere, and you even see the odd triple on Highway One. The highways were never meant for these things, and the Capricorn highway out here had a recent audit that said it was carrying three times the heavy traffic it was designed to, which means they have virtual full-time roadworks crews out here repairing the damn thing.

Basically, a responsible government would get them all off the frigging roads which were never designed for them, and put the freight back on the railways where it belongs, with smaller trucks only used for going from the rail depot to the destination nearby at the other end.

prydey · 24-02-2012, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

Basically, a responsible government would get them all off the frigging roads which were never designed for them, and put the freight back on the railways where it belongs, with smaller trucks only used for going from the rail depot to the destination nearby at the other end.

new2ford · 24-02-2012, 09:05 AM

Unfortunately the rail network has been so run down and neglected for decades as the money has been poured into roads that rail freight probably no longer has the capacity to take over any role (the best being bulk freight, not the local stuff). We get what we vote for.

It will also be interesting as to whether there is any follow up on allowing B doubles on the Gwydir Highway as the recent accident that killed a bus driver involved the back trailer sliding out on a sharp bend and the bus being hit by the middle tri-axle. It probably wouldn't have happened if it was only a semi-trailer, not a B double.

But as long as the road transport industry holds politicians by the short and curlies I'm not optimistic. Those cops out west are right - "not a lot we can do", but get over it and wait for the next accident.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mik

i suspect nothing to do with speed.

Read the article again.

falconboy · 24-02-2012, 09:14 AM

How do they get away with it though, don't heavy vehicles get checked by that safe-t-cam or whatever it is that ensures they haven't travelled between 2 points too quickly?

csv8 · 24-02-2012, 09:26 AM

What ? they couldn't blame speeding!!! be hard for the cops to take!!

351EL · 24-02-2012, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

put the freight back on the railways where it belongs, with smaller trucks only used for going from the rail depot to the destination nearby at the other end.

Rail companys arent interested in carrying what trucks are carrying I can tell you all they are interested in carrying is coal.
Until the rail companys are forced to carry the stuff that is road freighted it wont happen.

max_torq · 24-02-2012, 09:44 AM

I spend a bit of time on the highways with my business, and most of the time the trucks are safe and predictable at 100km. Get on the Hume after dark and it suddenly changes, there are more cowboys still out there than you would expect. One time when I was overtaking a truck on Wrights hill, a another truck poking out of a rest-stop forced him to slow down and he couldn't swerve into my lane because I was there. This p***ed him off so he chased down me the highway to Tarcutta. I couldn't get clear of him, and I'm no slouch, he was so fast; it was like the movie "Duel". Coming into Tarcutta he tailgated me so I put the hazard blinkers on as I proceeded him through the town, then left him in the hills to the north. There was no way he was speed limited to 100kph.

Smoke Pursuit · 24-02-2012, 09:49 AM

I get overtaken by plenty big freight companies, especially ones that run interstate. One QLD based one comes to mind (no names).

Sadly unless the industry gets sorted out and fairer pay rates are met this sort of conduct will continue. In the current climate trucks are not a profitable business unless your lindsay fox or toll.

2011G6E · 24-02-2012, 09:56 AM

Why don't cops stop them at radar traps?

In the words of my nephew who's a cop in Brisbane, "Would you step out in front of him and wave him down when you ping him for speeding on the highway...?"
The cameras, from what I've heard, are a big issue...they take the photo of the trailer...unless they get a picture of the front of the prime mover itself, the company can simply say they don't know who was driving the truck pulling that particular trailer, or which prime mover was doing it. It was happening in Bundaberg a few years back, frustrating the cops as when they would visit, everyone would magically "forget" who had been pulling that trailer in the photo...

Whatever happened to the strict roadside checks of logbooks and tachygraphs (or whatever they're called now)? You used to be able to tell out here when the scaleys were set up in a big stop point just east of Dingo...from Dingo down to Rocky and from Dingo westwards inland, you would see masses of trucks stopped at the side of the road "having a sleep", or "checking the truck over" until they were gone...bit of a dead giveaway that they were all hiding something...

EDManual · 24-02-2012, 09:57 AM

I do heaps of driving in Vic, NSW SA, and never get passed by trucks. (Although I always sit on 25 over)

Cops saying they do up to 150! Yeah right! That would be super rare.

Once about 8 years ago I got passed on the hume by a Greenfreight B double doing 150-160 down a big hill (yes I followed to check his speed..)! Never seen it before or again in my life of doing near 100,000km a year.

**buggerlugs** · 24-02-2012, 10:07 AM

It only takes one bad egg to stuff it up for the good honest hard working truckies out there.......

new2ford · 24-02-2012, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 351EL

Rail companys arent interested in carrying what trucks are carrying I can tell you all they are interested in carrying is coal.
Until the rail companys are forced to carry the stuff that is road freighted it wont happen.

They are most certainly interested in bulk long-distance freight but the infrastructure isn't up to it for them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by max_torq

I spend a bit of time on the highways with my business, and most of the time the trucks are safe and predictable at 100km. Get on the Hume after dark and it suddenly changes, there are more cowboys still out there than you would expect.

I have a lot of respect for good truck drivers (who are probably the majority). I used to spend a lot of time on the Hume Highway at night and I certainly preferred to share the road with them than car drivers who don't have a clue what they're doing.

Having said that, like you, I've seen a lot of stupidly wild driving that is definitely over-speed and unsafe. It's like a lottery - you can get away with it most of the time but when you "lose" the results are tragic. There is too little regulation and enforcement. If air pilots, ship skippers and train drivers (even bus drivers) drove that way and had that accident rate they'd lose their job (their career in fact) and get hauled over multiple legal coals. But politicians are irrational - when there's a spate of level crossing accidents they reduce the train speed limits, not go after the real culprits. Even post-Kerang I've seen photos by loco drivers of semis speeding across level crossings right in front of trains. This trash has to be weeded out of the industry and the industry well and truly sorted. But it won't happen - there's a flurry after each bad accident then it all dies down and gets forgotten, helped by a little political lobbying by the industry.

Smoke Pursuit · 24-02-2012, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

Why don't cops stop them at radar traps?

In the words of my nephew who's a cop in Brisbane, "Would you step out in front of him and wave him down when you ping him for speeding on the highway...?"
The cameras, from what I've heard, are a big issue...they take the photo of the trailer...unless they get a picture of the front of the prime mover itself, the company can simply say they don't know who was driving the truck pulling that particular trailer, or which prime mover was doing it. It was happening in Bundaberg a few years back, frustrating the cops as when they would visit, everyone would magically "forget" who had been pulling that trailer in the photo...

Whatever happened to the strict roadside checks of logbooks and tachygraphs (or whatever they're called now)? You used to be able to tell out here when the scaleys were set up in a big stop point just east of Dingo...from Dingo down to Rocky and from Dingo westwards inland, you would see masses of trucks stopped at the side of the road "having a sleep", or "checking the truck over" until they were gone...bit of a dead giveaway that they were all hiding something...

Why don't cops stop them? Because they rarely catch them. The trucky network has what we call channel 40 on the UHF. They call communicate with each other and tell each other where the cops are! Rarely do you see them speeding when they know the fuzz are around.

I typically see them doing around the 115 - 120 km an hour mark. Never seen one go past me doing 160 + but have heard stories about guys putting special diffs in Kenworth's which will allow them to do 140+.

Most of the speeding goes on late at night / early hours of the morning when the RTA / Police are all resting, and most of it is in places like Northern QLD and Western QLD... All the cameras on the southern roads make it too hard.

pottery beige · 24-02-2012, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

You've never been overtaken by a semi???
Don't know where you drive, but out here and along most of the Bruce Highway in central Queensland heavy semis that regularly go over 100 or 110kph are in the majority...I've followed big triples out west doing 130-plus, I've been overtaken and run off the road twice (once in my Celica, the other on my GSX1400 bike) when I've been doing 110 and a B-double has attempted to overtake and had to pull in when only halfway past me when traffic approached from the other way. I rang the cops about these two incidents, and they took the reports but said in a frustrated tone "We'll call the companies, but it's your word against theirs, and I've gotta tell you we get a lot of reports like this, but there's not a lot we can do. Sorry".

Not to mention the wonderful way they will happily tailgate you meters away, while at the same time telling use gravely not to tailgate them, as they gravely remind us how long it takes them to stop. I am assuming that if they are sitting right up your **** and you have to brake suddenly, they won't pull up quickly either? I was involved in a crash on the highway south of Rocky around New Years when a line of traffic was stopped for a truck rollover up ahead, on a long straight stretch near Bajool, when two cars behind me there was an almighty crash, as a b-double dump truck had barelled along and not even slowed down for the obviously stopped line of cars ahead of him. The big brave boy didn't steer off the road out of harms way...instead he steered straight into the on-coming traffic and had a head on with a pantech furniture van. Basically, if these things take so long to stop, shouldn't they be more careful than anyone else on the road, taking their time, going steadily to ensure they have plenty of room to stop?

The old lie about "it's the companies forcing us to speed" is just plain wrong as well...it's illegal to try and make someone else break the law for you, and if as claimed you have been given a schedule that means you couldn't possibly
get to where you are going without breaking the strict fatigue rules or speeding, then take it to the police as evidence and the owners will get into serious trouble, not you.

Trucks used to all have "100 speed limited" on the back...I haven't seen one for years now.
Then there's the fact that when B-doubles were first introduced, we were assured these monsters would never go on main highways...they would be solely used out west. Now they're everywhere, and you even see the odd triple on Highway One. The highways were never meant for these things, and the Capricorn highway out here had a recent audit that said it was carrying three times the heavy traffic it was designed to, which means they have virtual full-time roadworks crews out here repairing the damn thing.

Basically, a responsible government would get them all off the frigging roads which were never designed for them, and put the freight back on the railways where it belongs, with smaller trucks only used for going from the rail depot to the destination nearby at the other end.

go and sit back in your big comfy train on your big fat salary.. choo.. choo..

EDManual · 24-02-2012, 10:18 AM

if some do this in the middle of the night when theres no one around, who cares, who are they going to hurt?! really. Just a populist vote grabber policy I guess.

blk6t · 24-02-2012, 10:20 AM

You should see the truck cowboys in my area, they use Bells Line of Road as a race circuit and even worse on the Putty Road.

I understand it's good to have these big haulers speed limited, but in all honesty is their much of a difference between an impact with a semi at 95km/h or 110km/h????

Alot of what happens is due to driver mentallity which appears to be driven from upper management. Sadly as long as there are trucks on the road, we will continue to see accidents of this nature.

I have done alot of driving in the US over the years and what I like seeing is on several of the big highways they have dedicated truck lanes, where trucks must drive with no cars. The government could apply a tax to truck companies to fund truck lanes on the Hume and possibly the F3, thinking as I write, but it would keep the cars and trucks seperate.

RedHotGT · 24-02-2012, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDManual

if some do this in the middle of the night when theres no one around, who cares, who are they going to hurt?! really. Just a populist vote grabber policy I guess.

So it's okay to break the law - and put your own life and others at risk - so long as nobody is around??

pottery beige · 24-02-2012, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loftie

So it's okay to break the law - and put your own life and others at risk - so long as nobody is around??

yes..

blk6t · 24-02-2012, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDManual

if some do this in the middle of the night when theres no one around, who cares, who are they going to hurt?! really. Just a populist vote grabber policy I guess.

The thing is no one can be sure that there is NO one around, trucks don't have radars.

Smoke Pursuit · 24-02-2012, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDManual

if some do this in the middle of the night when theres no one around, who cares, who are they going to hurt?! really. Just a populist vote grabber policy I guess.

What about all the other truck drivers / motorists who travel on the roads at the same time?

Trucks are fitted with speed limiters for a reason. Unplug them and get caught and the fines are massive, not to mention the fact that your insurance is no longer valid!

chevypower · 24-02-2012, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loftie

So it's okay to break the law - and put your own life and others at risk - so long as nobody is around??

If nobody else is around, how can you be putting others at risk?

RedHotGT · 24-02-2012, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chevypower

If nobody else is around, how can you be putting others at risk?

So the instant that a trucky see's ANYONE on the road around them, or a building or house, then they're back to within the limits instantly?

I understand the 'want' to travel faster, get to the destination quicker etc... But nobody is above the law regardless of the convenience...

Accidents are called accidents because the are accidental - and not on purpose... The laws are there to help reduce the likelihood of chaos when something goes wrong...

The same reason that we have 40km/h speed limits around schools at schooltime... Sure - kids will still get hit by cars, and accidents will still happen... but it will be at a reduced rate - and if a kid gets cleaned up by a car that was doing 40km/h when they hit the brakes... then the same kid might have been killed if it was hit by a car that was doing 60km/h and brakes...

Trucks are lethal weapons... and I am sure that the majority of truck drivers out there aren't cowboys (the same could be said for the taxi industry, and a number of other industries with incorrect stereotypes) so the ones that want to break the rules - which are there for EVERYONE's safety.... should have the book thrown at them...

Nothing that is carried in a semi-trailer is for an emergency... and if it was... it would be carried like organs are for donor/receivers....

galaxy xr8 · 24-02-2012, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDManual

if some do this in the middle of the night when theres no one around, who cares, who are they going to hurt?! really. Just a populist vote grabber policy I guess.

Go and read the article that was posted up and ask that question again to the family member's of those that were killed,

.