Australia’s governments will consider requiring all new heavy vehicle trailers carrying dangerous goods to be fitted with electronic stability control, following a decision by transport ministers today.
The decision carries out a key measure in ATA Chairman David Simon’s five point plan for improving truck maintenance and safety say the ATA.
Mr Simon said Australia’s transport ministers had put three of the five measures in the plan on the governments’ agenda.
“I’m very pleased that our transport ministers, under the leadership of Acting Prime Minister Warren Truss, have responded so quickly to the industry’s concerns about vehicle maintenance and standards,” Mr Simon said.
“There’s no doubt we need to look at mandating electronic braking systems with roll stability support for some classes of dangerous goods vehicles. A NSW coroner made a recommendation along these lines in a report in 2011. She was investigating a tanker rollover that occurred near Batemans Bay in 2009.
“In my view, it would not be necessary to impose this requirement on all vehicles carrying dangerous goods. It should not, for instance, apply to trucks carrying domestic cleaning products in retail packaging a
s part of a larger load.
“We do, however, need to look at applying it to trucks carrying bulk loads of flammable or combustible liquids, explosives and radioactive substances,” he said.
In their meeting today, Australia’s transport ministers agreed to review the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme, as proposed by NSW Roads and Ports Minister Duncan Gay and by David Simon.
The ministers noted that a review of the chain of responsibility system was part of the Heavy Vehicle National Law forward work program.
In his five-point plan, David also called on governments to:
- establish a national database of coronial recommendations about road safety, together with the responses and updates about the recommendations that had not been followed up, and
- look at establishing a national ‘no blame’ accident investigation capacity for fatal truck crashes similar to the approach used to investigate aviation, marine and rail accidents.
In the meeting, the ministers also agreed to bring forward the National Transport Commission’s scheduled review of heavy vehicle inspection regimes to 2013-14.