TRUCKS AND ROAD TRAUMA

Road transport of goods and materials is a familiar part of the Australian landscape. If asked, people recognise their importance and also see negative impacts: noise, pollution, use of road space and the cause of serious road crashes. The media tend to report the same negatives, particularly when crashes occur. When they occur, crashes involving heavy trucks tend to have more severe consequences for other involved road users than for operators and occupants. This is an inevitable consequence of the size and mass differences between heavy vehicles and others. However, consequences are often incorrectly linked with cause and emphasise the fact that the numbers, involvement relationships and causes of crashes involving heavy vehicles are not well understood. This paper discusses some of the issues in heavy vehicle safety and steps being taken to improve safety of heavy vehicle operations. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E202433.