Fatal accidents alarm trucking industry

Fatal accidents alarm trucking industry

The frequency with which the drivers of other vehicles are hitting trucks, sometimes resulting in multiple fatalities, is causing deep concern within the road freight industry says the Chief Executive Officer of the Road Transport Forum, Ken Shirley.

“Late last year four people were killed when they attempted a U-turn immediately in front of a Northland logging truck. Now the last few weeks have been a real horror period. On January 29 a Northland driver pulled out in front of a truck and trailer, apparently intending to go to a roadside market on the other side of the road with fatal consequences. Wednesday three people died when their car apparently spun out of control in front of a logging truck in Waikato and yesterday a Canterbury rental car driver crossed the centre line and hit a stock truck.

“The roadway is a truck driver’s workplace. How many people have to go to work every day knowing that they could be the innocent participant in someone else’s fatal mistake? The effect on the driver can be traumatic and long lasting.

For many being involved in such an accident can ruin their lives. They find themselves unable to drive a truck again. It’s that shattering.”

Mr Shirley says the road freight industry gets particularly upset when the truck and truck driver are wrongly cast as the cause of a fatal accident.

“Just this week TVNZ News reporting on the Waikato accident said that the three people died ‘after being hit by a logging truck’ and then went on to say that the four fatalities in Northland last year was the result of their car being ‘struck by a logging truck’. It’s really disappointing when inaccurate reporting creates misleading impressions about how safe our members’ trucks are on the road. As with these four accidents, it’s a sad reality that in most fatal accidents involving a truck and another vehicle, the other vehicle is the primary cause of the crash.”

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