Heavy vehicles to remain on NSW roads

Switching dangerous loads from road to rail was not viable and would not reduce the
escalating road toll, say police and truckies.
Three major crashes on NSW highways involving heavy vehicles in the past nine days
have resulted in eight deaths and prompted calls for a reduction in the number of
trucks on the state's roads.
A 10-year-old girl died after the car in which she was a passenger crossed onto the
wrong side of the New England Highway at Muswellbrook in the state's Hunter region
on Tuesday, colliding with a tanker.
The 42-year-old driver, reportedly the girl's aunt, remains in a critical condition
at Newcastle's John Hunter Hospital with head and chest injuries.
The crash was the latest in a spate involving heavy vehicles but Premier Kristina
Keneally said while a proposal to shift freight from road to rail sounded
attractive, it would be difficult logistically.
"...It's a complex issue, there is a need to work at a national level, work with the
federal government on this given the movement of freight and goods right across the
country," she said.
"There is also the need to work with retailers, with motorist groups and with the
rail industry.
"It would require a very different rail network from the one we currently have.
"And it would also require us to work with retailers as to how you would move petrol
and other items to their final destinations."
NSW's top traffic cop, Assistant Commissioner John Hartley, said removing trucks
carrying dangerous goods would have little impact on the number of crashes.
"Eighty per cent of all road freight travels through NSW," Mr Hartley told reporters.
"... we do have a huge road freight issue anyway (and) by removing a small
percentage of trucks ... I don't believe it would make any impact at all."
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) wants federal and state governments to amend
dangerous goods acts to require hazardous materials to be transported by rail.
However, the Australian Trucking Association NSW says the proposal is not practical.
"Petrol stations are located on roads, not on rail lines, so delivery by truck is
the only way to get fuel to the outlets," ATA's NSW manager Jill Lewis said in a
statement.
Mr Hartley added that of the three recent heavy vehicle smashes, on two occasions
the truck drivers were not at fault.
He also said the statistics did not show any increase in heavy vehicle-related fatal
crashes in the past five years.
On Tuesday morning, a young Victorian couple and a three-month-old baby were killed
when their sedan drifted into the path of a truck carrying stock feed on the Newell
Highway near Narrandera in the state's south.
On Wednesday the state's road toll for 2010 stood at 10.
Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell blamed the high toll on a shortage of traffic
police and the government's failure to roll out digital mobile speed cameras.
Mr Hartley admitted on Wednesday that police traffic resources were "stretched"
during the Christmas period on the state's north and south coasts.