Building safer trucks

For new trucks, the first stage of mandatory electronic stability control will come into effect in November 2019. Warren Clark writes

 

One of the initiatives Government is taking to improve road safety is to mandate electronic stability control (ESC) in new trucks and roll stability control (RSC) in new trailers. In a submission lodged with the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities on February 2, NatRoad supported the move to require all new heavy vehicles and trailers to be fitted with ESC or RSC.

This followed member consultation via a working group convened to consider the issues.

We offered support for the Government initiative on the basis that National Truck Research Accident Centre (NTARC) research shows that 28.9 percent of major crash incidents (defined as where the quantum of loss from the incident exceeded $50,000[1]) involved vehicle rollover whilst on road. Accordingly, efforts to alleviate the problem of rollovers is supported.

The Government has identified that fitting ESC and related systems, such as Antilock Brake Systems and Roll Stability Control, to heavy vehicles are effective. These would build on the earlier mandating of ABS systems being fitted to some heavy vehicles, as well as the introduction of guidelines developed by the trucking industry for operating truck and trailer combinations with different braking characteristics.

We reminded the Government that changes to the law relating to heavy vehicle safety should not focus primarily on changes to regulations relating to heavy vehicles. In road fatalities, heavy vehicles are rarely at fault.

Research recently released for the 2015 year shows that in collisions involving fatalities, the truck driver was not at fault on 93 percent of occasions.

The preferred Government option is to limit the mandatory requirement to heavy vehicles exclusive of heavy rigid vehicles. It does so based on the assumption that there is a higher probability of prime movers being involved in a fatal or serious injury crash involving a rollover or loss of control. But NatRoad supports broader implementation because we place road safety as a top priority, given the spike in fatal crashes that occurred in 2017, mostly from incidents in New South Wales.

While this comes at an additional cost to industry, NatRoad supports the use of engineering controls as a reasonably practicable measure to minimise the hazards and associated risks of roll-overs. We are therefore supportive of the prospective mandating of ESC and RSC systems in new heavy vehicles. There won’t be a requirement to retro-fit. This step will save lives and industry costs.

The proposed timing for heavy trucks and buses is:

*             1 November 2019 – new model vehicles; and

*             1 November 2021 – for all new vehicles.

The proposed timing for medium and heavy trailers is:

*             1 July 2019 – for all new model vehicles; and

*             1 November 2019 – for all new vehicles.

The Government is currently reviewing feedback and will likely make a final decision about the extent of the new technical requirements and final timing in the second half of this year.