Having read in the Canberra Times (December 30, page 10) that the NSW and presumably Victorian governments are proposing to trial B-Triples on the Hume highway in 2014, you have got to wonder how such an idiotic decision could be made.
Bill McKinley of the Australian Trucking Association is quoted as saying “we have an excellent understanding of how they handle” and “the safety and productivity case for bringing them in is compelling”. That might be his views, but as a regular traveller between Canberra and the Central Coast of NSW on the Federal Highway, Hume Highway, M7, M2, Pennant Hills Road, and F3 I would like to comment on the danger 90% of the idiots calling themselves professional truck drivers pose to motorists.
These clowns continually exceed the speed limit (including roadwork areas and recently resealed sections of dual carriageways where they will, without compunction, move to the outside lane and shower everyone with stones) , tailgate slower cars, wait until you are in the process of overtaking them, then indicate and pull out straight away in many cases to spend the next umpteen kilometres blocking the highway whilst trying to overtake another truck doing about 1/2 kph less.
And this is with the existing semis and B-doubles!
Imagine these galahs let loose in the B-triple monsters!! Not to mention the dangers of excessive spray from these vehicles obliterating the road ahead when it is raining.
One wonders whether any of these decision makers/politicians actually drive on these roads to experience the conditions first hand.
Whilst this trial is supposed to be for the Hume Highway (what about getting from their depots to the Hume Highway??), I bet it won’t be long before they worm their way onto the Pacific Highway. Imagine having to deal with this lot on Pennant Hills Road between the M2 and F3 – there is supposed to be a plan to build a link road between these two, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Obviously the likes of Lindsay Fox etc have a strong influence with the federal and state governments, but instead of encouraging the use of these oversized missiles on our roads, we should be investing in upgrading and modernising the existing rail system to carry this freight. If they let these things loose on our highways, what next – road trains??? (or perhaps B-Triples already qualify as such!) In that case why not take the proposal (as mentioned in the above CT article) to review parking on major roads used by trucks a step further and review the driving of cars on those roads – then the trucking lobby would have it all their own way.
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