A South Australian concrete manufacturing company director has been prosecuted by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) for their failure to maintain and service their fleet of heavy vehicles, following the death of one of their driver employees in a 2020 incident.
The NHVR is urging all operators to regularly review the roadworthiness of their own fleets.
The workplace fatality occurred when the driver was unable to manoeuvre a road turn and crashed into a tree. An inspection of the truck revealed that the vehicle’s brakes were so defective that five of the eight wheel brakes, the exhaust brake, service and emergency brake were not functioning.
A formal investigation ensued showing that the company had no policies or procedures in place to ensure appropriate repairs, service or maintenance of their heavy vehicles. The company’s director had failed to have systems in place to ensure that the vehicles were regularly serviced and reported faults repaired.
NHVR Acting Director of Prosecutions Iain Macdonald said that visual inspections of the company’s remaining fleet revealed 21 of the 22 heavy vehicles were defective; 19 of those with major defects which posed a serious safety risk.”
The Director was convicted and fined $42,000 for a category 2 offence and in a separate charge, the company has entered a guilty plea for a Category 1 offence.
Every heavy vehicle operator has an obligation under the Heavy Vehicle National Laws (HVNL) to ensure the safety of their transport activities, and to ensure their fleet receives regular maintenance inspections and that repairs are completed as soon as a fault is detected.
Under Chain of Responsibility (CoR) rules everyone who works with heavy vehicles - from the business that employs the driver or owns the vehicle, to the business that sends or receives goods, is accountable for the safety of the heavy vehicle, its driver, and its load throughout the journey.
If you are employed as a heavy vehicle driver, you are not a party in the CoR, but the HVNL includes many other obligations for drivers and other employees in the heavy vehicle industry that you need to comply with. All employees, including employed drivers, also have obligations under work health and safety laws to look after their own health and safety, and that of other employees.
The NHVR has a Heavy Vehicle Confidential Reporting Line (HVCRL), which is a secure, national service for participants in the heavy vehicle industry and supply chain to report safety issues relating to procedures, practices or conditions that could endanger a driver or road user.
You can learn more about the responsibilities for keeping heavy vehicle drivers and other road users safe at the NHVR safety, accreditation and compliance page, including links to CoR resource materials that can be used to build a safety management system specifically designed to assist in managing the safety of a heavy vehicle fleet.
Read more: NHVR prosecutes Director of a concrete manufacturer over fatal collision | NHVR