Annual heavy vehicle operation kicks off with police nabbing a truck allegedly travelling more than 120km/h
May 20, 2013
The start to this year’s annual Operation Austrans targeting heavy vehicles has not started well for the trucking industry, with authorities nabbing a truck allegedly travelling more than 120km/h on the F3 Freeway in New South Wales.
Police sprung the driver about 12.10am today when he was crossing the Hawkesbury River Bridge at Brooklyn. He was allegedly clocked at 126km/h.
The 39-year-old driver received an infringement for exceeding the speed limit by more than 20km/h, while police also issued a major defect notice for the vehicle.
Operation Austrans is a heavy vehicle road safety compliance and enforcement operation run across Australia and New Zealand. It has been conducted annually since 1989.
NSW Police says it will join forces with the Roads and Maritime Services throughout the campaign to focus on speeding, fatigue, drink/drug driving and load restraint.
“Our joints efforts with the Roads and Maritime Service will continue to address the problems within the heavy vehicle industry,” NSW Police Superintendent Stuart Smith says.
“By checking heavy vehicles are compliant and that the drivers are being responsible by not speeding or drink/drug driving helps ensure the roads of NSW are safer for all of us.”
NSW Police intercepted 21,947 vehicles during last year’s operation, which runs through May and June.
Results from the 2012 operation included 1,087 work diary offences, 535 speeding offences, 149 load restraint offences and 118 cases of unlicensed, suspended or disqualified drivers.
Police also detected 210 seatbelt offences, 10 drug driving offences out of 538 tests and 10 drink driving offences out of 21,626 tests.
