WA’s critical need for increased truck safety education

Four in five accidents involving cars and trucks in Australia are the fault of the car driver and in nearly all these instances it is the car driver that is most likely to be killed or seriously injured.

Accident and serious injury data demonstrate that Australians are unaware of how to share the roads safely with trucks.

And in States like Western Australia where truck movements are growing in number by the day, this lack of awareness has authorities concerned.

Transafe WA Executive Officer Ana Stachewicz said there is a critical need to educate current and future road users how to share the road safely with trucks

Ajoint report from the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR), Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Australia (CILTA) and the National Truck Accident Research Centre (NTARC) has revealed Performance Based Standards (PBS) vehicles are involved in 60 per cent fewer major crashes than conventional vehicles.

This is a significant improvement over the results in a 2018 report which found 46 per cent fewer major crashes compared to the conventional fleet. PBS vehicles are also forecast to save 143 lives over 20 years.

The NHVR partnered with CILTA and the NTARC to deliver the Review of Major Crash Rates for Australian Higher Productivity Vehicles: 2015 – 2019 report, which looks at the reduced crash rates, fewer kilometres driven, and lives saved by using PBS vehicles.

NHVR Chief Engineer Les Bruzsa said PBS vehicles were achieving safety gains beyond what was originally anticipated.

“In the last five years, PBS vehicles were involved in 60 per cent fewer major crashes than conventional trucks” Mr Bruzsa said.

“PBS articulated combinations had the lowest rate of crashes per distance travelled with 5.4 crashes per 100