A truck driver charged with the manslaughter of a man and his parents was allegedly under the influence of methadone at the time of the head-on collision.
Vincent Samuel George, 34, had fresh charges brought against him when he appeared in Campbelltown Local Court today.
He was charged in February with three counts of dangerous driving occasioning death over the accident on January 24
Today, prosecutor Alex Brown lodged three additional charges of manslaughter against Mr George.
Mr George was driving a B-double for Lennon’s Transport Services when it careered on to the wrong side of the Hume Highway at Menangle.
It collided with another vehicle, killing Calvyn Logan, 59, and his parents, Donald and Patricia Logan, both aged in their 80s.
Police allege in court documents that at the time he was impaired by methadone, which he possessed illegally.
He has also been charged with one count of negligent driving occasioning death.
During the brief court appearance, Mr George wore a dark, pin-striped suit and was supported by family members.
He and his barrister Stephen Stanton declined to comment to journalists outside the court.
He was issued with a field court attendance notice to appear in the same court on July 9.
Source: smh
A FORMER Geelong truck driver, who used his company petrol card to treat himself to more than $800 in food, cigarettes and petrol, has been told to pay the money back.
Simon Delmo, 39, of Sutcliffe Court, Corio, pleaded guilty in Geelong Magistrates' Court yesterday to obtaining property by deception.
Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Scott Bell said that Delmo was supplied with a fuel card when he commenced employment with a Geelong trucking company.
"All drivers were advised the card was to be used only in regard to the truck assigned to them," Sen-Constable Bell said.
"They were also advised against using the cards without the boss's permission."
The prosecutor said that on March 21, Delmo transported a shipping container to Brooklyn, parked his truck and was picked up by another person.
"Over the next five days, he attended three different stores on six occasions, where he purchased cigarettes, food and petrol totalling $832.39," Sen-Constable Bell said.
"Delmo was sacked when his boss discovered the deception.
"When interviewed, he told police, 'I just had to have these things'."
Shane Balkin, for Delmo, said his client had quite a few priors and was struggling financially after spending $1000 on a new head gasket.
"He has now found another job truck driving and is due to start soon," he said.
Mr Balkin asked the court to consider a financial penalty.
Magistrate Ron Saines said Delmo was before the court in 1997 for the same offence.
"This is another matter of dishonesty and if you continue to allow yourself to cheat people like this, you won't just lose your job, you will got to jail," he said.
Delmo was convicted, fined $250 and ordered to pay restitution of $832.39 to his former employer.
Source: Geelong Advertiser
The Northern Territory trucking industry hopes legal action being taken against the Federal Government by companies involved in the live cattle trade will act as a deterrent to further export bans.
The ABC understands that law firm Minter Ellison is holding negotiations with Commonwealth representatives on behalf of 21 clients about compensation.
They are angry about the Government's suspension of live cattle exports to Indonesia last year.
Northern Territory Road Transport Association spokeswoman Louise Belato says cattle producers and trucking firms are suspicious that the Government could hurt their businesses again in the future.
"The cattle industry is a very important one for the Northern Territory and one that needs to be carefully protected, not stopped overnight," she said.
"What we are hoping will come from that is that decisions that are of very real significance to an industry such as the cattle export industry are considered very, very carefully.
"That decision had such considerable ramifications for so many people in the Northern Territory."
Source: ABC NEWS
Westport Innovations Inc., the parent company of Westport HD, has just announced the availability of its 410 kW (550 horsepower) 2,508 Nm (1,850ft/lb) HD550 Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) engine on the North American market.
While the high-pressure direct injection 15-litre engine has been in service here in Australia for the last three years, this is the first time the higher horsepower and torque rating will be offered in the company’s home market.
North American operators have had to be content with horsepower ratings of 362 kW and 373 kW (485 hp and 500 hp) to date.
The HD series engine are based on the Cummins ISX platform but with the engine re-manufactured to suit their HPDI LNG system. So far Aussie units have clocked up over 10,000,000 kilometres in mainly multi trailer roles.
As well as the higher output engine, Paccar companies Kenworth and Peterbilt will for the first time be able to offer the HD engine in conjunction with Eaton’s Ultrashift Plus automated transmission.
"These product enhancements are in direct response to requests from customers that operate their trucks in the most demanding of applications, and further validate that Westport's HD15L natural gas engine offers diesel-like performance in any environment," Westport HD President Clark Quintin says.
"We are building on our established leadership in technology development to deliver improved horsepower, torque, and fuel efficiency using low-cost natural gas, and are ideally situated to respond to the demands of the marketplace."
A joint venture between Westport and Cummins formed in 2001 has seen the Cummins Westport Company also develop a range of smaller capacity spark ignition LNG bus and truck engines.
The HD550 will be a useful addition to the highly competitive, 15 litre heavy duty market in the US. Use of LNG as an alternative fuel for commercial vehicles has been steadily growing in North America with both the US and Canada using around 73 billion cubic feet daily combined, with 14 billion cubic feet being used in heavy transport alone.
To date, Australian interest in LNG has been patchy with Western Australia being the biggest user of the natural gas for transport purposes. Interest is said to be growing on the Eastern Seaboard, though questions on re-fuelling infrastructure and equipment resale value still remain to be answered.
Source: Owner / Driver
The federal Opposition has renewed its commitment to building 500 rest areas if it comes to power.
Opposition spokesman on transport Warren Truss told the Australian Trucking Convention the Coalition still plans to forge ahead with its $300 million investment committed during the 2010 federal election.
The Coalition has pledged to spend $30 million each year for 10 years building 50 rest areas annually.
"It's deliverable and we intend to achieve it," Truss says.
The political veteran also used his appearance to utter support for national heavy vehicle regulations and to once again raise his concerns with safe rates legislation.
"This legislation troubles me greatly," he says.
Truss rejected a link between remuneration and road safety, telling the convention safe rates is about increasing union power.
He says initiatives such as chain of responsibility and national regulations will have greater effect on safety.
"They should have been given a chance to work," Truss says.
Source: ATN
Good and Bad News for Aussie Truck Operators
AUSTRALIA – WORLDWIDE – Following our piece last month criticising the amount of deaths caused to and by truck drivers suffering from fatigue and the scourge of sleep apnoea some good news today following pressure on the Government by road haulage group the Australian Trucking Association (ATA), and in particular its Chairman, David Simon.
After lobbying the authorities the ATA has managed to extract a promise of financial assistance to provide more rest areas, essential given the paucity of such facilities at the moment. An amount of A$140 million has now been set aside to provide truck rest areas and other productivity measures over the seven years from 2012-13 to 2018-19. David Simon gave a guarded welcome to the news saying:
“The fatigue laws require truck drivers to take regular breaks, but there simply aren’t enough rest areas. The Government has built or upgraded more than 70 rest areas under its existing funding program, which expires in June, but there is still a long way to go. The program will also fund productivity measures like bridge upgrades to enable us to use vehicles like B-doubles and B-triples on more routes. These trucks carry more freight than conventional semitrailers, so you can do the same job with fewer trucks, leading to safer, more productive and more environmentally friendly outcomes.
“I’m up at Parliament House this evening, and I have already congratulated and thanked Minister Albanese for this outstanding decision, which delivers on one of the ATA’s long standing strategic priorities.”
Despite cutting A$33.6 billion from its budgethe Government intends to continue with its road program and Mr Simon welcomed the news but sounded a note of caution over the financial straits which many freight haulage outfits find themselves in and also criticised the administration’s policies on fuel and truck registration saying:
“The Government will offer an extra A$3.56 billion toward duplicating the Pacific Highway in NSW. It will extend the Black Spot Program for another five years, which will prevent thousands of accidents, and will extend the Roads to Recovery program for local councils as well. Every Australian will win from the Government’s commitment to building better roads, because the benefits of lower transport costs and better safety percolate through the whole economy.
“Trucking businesses are under continued pressure from their customers to cut costs. In addition, many are facing deteriorating payment terms, with customers not paying their bills for 60 days or more. The Government’s decision to allow companies to carry back up to $1 million worth of losses and get a refund of the tax they paid in earlier years will benefit incorporated trucking businesses facing temporary losses but all trucking operators will be hit by the decision by transport ministers to increase the fuel tax on the industry by 10.4 per cent, or 2.4 cents per litre, and dramatically increase some registration charges. The budget papers show this decision will cost trucking operators an additional A$698 million over four years for the fuel tax increase alone.
“Australia’s transport ministers will meet on Friday 18th May. At the meeting, they should reconsider or defer this tax increase given the budget forecasts and the tight or negative margins across the industry.”
Anyone concerned that they may be overtired due to sleep apnoea is advised to read our previous article for guidance and seek appropriate medical help as the condition can be dealt with using non invasive treatment.
Source: Handy Shipping Guide
The big retailers will face scrutiny over driver safety after police filed more than 1000 charges against executives of four trucking companies.
Lennon's, Scott's in South Australia, Damorange, and Fred's Transport are accused of dangerous speeding and tampering with heavy vehicles in order to exceed speed limits.
NSW Roads and Maritime Services said the focus of its investigation is now on suppliers, who may be liable under the chain of responsibility for trucking laws.
"This is really chapter one in our investigation, where we're picking on senior members of the companies," RMS customer compliance director Peter Wells told reporters on Thursday.
The investigation was sparked by widespread reports of speeding, tampering and the deaths of three family members in a collision with a Lennon's truck in January.
About 12 directors and managers of the trucking firms are charged with around 25 to 30 offences each.
The prosecutions were announced as the Transport Workers Union (TWU) launched protests at Coles stores across the country, saying practices used by big retailers were endangering drivers.
"Coles have implemented a business model that is deliberately causing deaths and injuries on our roads," said Michael Aird, assistant secretary of the union's NSW branch.
The retailer had cut pay rates, slashed transport providers and forced services to be contracted to operators that didn't adhere to appropriate standards, he said.
Coles denied the claims.
"We outsource our transport business to large and reputable providers, we take safe transport practices very seriously and in no way do our transport contracts force drivers into unsafe or illegal practices," Coles spokesman Jim Cooper told AAP in a statement.
"Coles takes chain of responsibility very seriously as being core to its operating practices," he said.
The TWU says one in three truck drivers works for a major retailer like Coles or Woolworths, in an industry with a death rate more than ten times the industrial average.
It says one in three workplace fatalities are related to truck driving, despite the industry having only two per cent of the total number of Australian workers.
Retired driver Peter Cooley, who has spent 44 years driving, told AAP major retailers don't care about the pressures on drivers.
"If you don't break the law, you don't have a job, it's as simple as that," he said.
Source: 9NEWS
Nationals Senator John Williams has hit out at planned increases to the fuel excise, claiming regional Australia will hardest hit when the price hikes take effect.
The Federal Government will increase the excise by 2.4 cents per litre on July 1, reducing the trucking industry’s fuel tax credit to 12.6 cents per litre.
The change is expected to cost the industry $698 million over four years, and the government plans to deduct another 6.85 cents per litre on July 1, 2014 as part of the carbon tax.
“Of course, regional Australia will be the worst affected by this. The town where I live does not have a railway line,” Williams says.
“Everything comes in on the road. All our exports, our cattle from abattoirs and our wheat all go out on the road. It is a tax on regional Australia especially.”
Opposition spokesman on transport Warren Truss in April threatened to move a disallowance motion to block the increase to the excise.
He claims the charge, along with higher registration fees, will overcharge the industry by $700 million.
Australian Trucking Association (ATA) Chairman David Simon wants the government to reconsider or defer the 2.4 cent increase when transport ministers meet on May 18 as part of the Standing Council on Transport and Infrastructure (SCOTI).
Source: ATN
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A QUEENSLAND truckie faces several driving charges and his truck being taken off the road after a traffic stop near Ceduna yesterday.
Police say they stopped the prime mover on Eyre Highway because it was travelling too close to another vehicle about 9.20pm.
An inspection showed the truck had a cracked windscreen and a defect notice was issued.
But, the driver, 23, soon had other problems when he told police he had lost his log book which was used to monitor the distance and hours travelled, police said.
"A search of the truck found the diary which police will allege had not been completed for the month of May," a spokesman said. "Police will further allege an amount of cannabis and medication prescribed to another person was found."
Police issued the driver with an expiation notice for failing to keep a safe distance from a vehicle in front, failure to record in work diary and possession of cannabis.
"He was further reported for possessing prescribed medication without a script," the spokesman said. "The truck was grounded for 24 hours due to the failure to record travel appropriately."
Transport authorities and police are targeting heavy-trucks as part of Operation Austrans, an Australian-New Zealand road-safety campaign run nationally during May.
Other charges during Operation Austrans include -
MAY 14: B-double truck was stopped while heading south on South Road at Richmond. The driver, a 36-year-old man, who was en route to Victoria, tested positive to drugs.
MAY 10: 49-year-old man from Craigmore was driving semi-trailer on Chamberlain Road, Wingfield. He returned positive drug test for cannabis. The semi-trailer was inspected and four out of the six brakes on the trailer were found to be inoperable.
A 29-year-old man was driving a road train on the Eyre Highway, Ceduna. He was stopped and returned positive drug test for methamphetamine.
A 42-year-old man was driving a B-double on Portrush Road, Marden. He was stopped and returned positive drug test for methamphetamine. Just after 5pm, a police patrol stopped the road train on the Eyre Highway, about 50km west of Ceduna. The driver, a 28-year-old Western Australia man, tested positive to drugs and was grounded for 24 hours. The road train was defected after the patrol found the speed limiter had been tampered with.
MAY 6: 54-year-old man from Dublin was driving a road train at Lafitte Road, Wingfield when stopped. He returned positive drug test (methamphetamine). On the same day, a 41 year old male was driving a road train on the Eyre Highway, Ceduna. He was stopped and returned positive drug test for methamphetamine.
MAY 5: 44-year-old man from Salisbury Downs was driving a Road Train on Port Wakefield Rd, Burton when stopped. Returned positive drug test (methamphetamine). He was also reported re breaches relating to the assembling / disassembling of road trains in undesignated areas.
MAY 2: B-double truck was pulled over on Hanson Road, Ottoway, and the driver, a 40-year-old man, tested positive to drugs. He was also found to have a disqualified drivers licence from previous drug driving offences. He was arrested by police and appeared in the Port Adelaide Magistrates Court the following day.
Source: adelaidenow
The owner of collapsed trucking firm 1st Fleet has reportedly left Australia, leaving behind 1,000 out-of-work former employees and owner-drivers.
News Limited says Stephen Brown left for the US mid-week following the first creditors' meeting.
An unnamed employee at Sydney casino The Star has told the Sunday Telegraph that Mr Brown spent $2 million a year gambling.
Administrators deVriesTayeh say they haven't had the opportunity to investigate any gambling allegations.
Source: Sky News
A US expert has warned that the sprawl of Australia's trucking industry makes it prone to risk.
Don Osterberg - keynote speaker at the Australian Trucking Convention in Sydney - has drawn comparisons between the Australian and US trucking industries, where 80 per cent of companies operate five or fewer trucks.
Mr Osterberg says many of these companies do not prioritise safety.
'In a disaggregated industry with all of the competing demands that are inherent to this business, there will be a significant percentage of carriers who simply will not self-correct to any meaningful level (of safety),' he told AAP on Friday.
Mr Osterberg heads safety, security and driver training at Schneider National, which covers 2 billion trucking kilometres a year in the US.
He always offers to attend hospital beds and funerals of the victims of any accidents involving his trucking company ... 'to make sure that we never embrace the mindset that somehow fatality crashes are a cost of business', Mr Osterberg said in his address to the convention.
The formal program of the convention concluded on Friday, when the NSW Police and the Roads and Maritime Service delivered a presentation on the dangers of, and penalties for, tampering with speed limiters.
A recent blitz in NSW on four trucking companies found that 48 trucks out of 500 inspected had their speed limiters tampered with so they could exceed the 100km/h speed limit for heavy vehicles.
Mr Osterberg said Schneider uses random hair follicle testing to detect illicit drug-taking by its drivers and equips its existing fleet with electronic logging devices that cost a few hundred dollars.
'If you can't afford that, what else aren't you doing,' he told the convention.
Sydney University PhD student Lisa Sharwood told the convention that 40 per cent of the 517 drivers she studied suffer from sleep apnoea, which increases the risk of being sleepy while driving.
She also found 20 per cent of drivers admitted to taking illegal drugs, such as speed, to stay awake at the wheel.
'I think we can probably safely say a lot more would take it than admit to taking it,' Ms Sharwood told AAP.
'They're also doing shift work, working nights, eating crap food at truck stops and they're not doing exercise,' she said.
Source: Bigpondnews
Mr Osterberg said a study Schneider participated in determined that morbidly obese drivers were 48 per cent more likely to have a crash.
Forty percent of drivers struggle to stay awake, according to research results presented at today’s Australian Trucking Convention.
Sleep apnoea, which is a condition where a person has difficulty breathing while asleep, leads to daytime sleepiness, fatigue and poor reaction times, George Institute for Global Health researcher Lisa Sharwood says.
She has visited 25 truck stops across NSW and Western Australia, interviewing 517 drivers who were on rest breaks and had travelled more than 200 kilometres.
They were sent home with breathing monitors to test their sleep apnoea levels, with 12 percent turning positive.
Forty percent struggle staying awake despite managing to have eight hours of sleep on their non-working days, and 6.7 hours whilst on shift.
Half of them smoke a pack of cigarettes each day and have a poor diet and are overweight.
Sharwood is proposing a national regulated concordance for medical testing of commercial vehicle drivers, saying employers need to be supportive of drivers as one driver who tested positive to sleep apnoea approached his employer about the results but was fired.
“They showed the employer the test hoping for some assistance trying to do the right thing and were told to take a walk,” Sharwood says.
“There is a problem and there needs to be a regulatory requirement that drivers get assistance in identifying this disorder and their health risks at large.
“If somebody is not taking responsi
Source: ATN
A MAN died after being hit by a car on the Cunningham Hwy at Willowbank on Tuesday night.
Ipswich Inspector Keith McDonald said the 44-year-old man had been driving a truck along the highway and had pulled up at the Matilda service station for a rest stop.
Two associates of the man, also driving trucks, had pulled up across the other side of the highway, and he was in the process of crossing the road when he was hit.
"He was driving a truck that was towing a sideshow - we believe he was on his way to one of the country shows," Insp McDonald said.
"There were two other trucks in the convoy and they had pulled up next to the northbound lanes of the highway."
Police believe the man was walking diagonally across the road and did not see a utility approaching from the north.
The ute driver, a Stanthorpe man, swerved to miss the pedestrian, but police believe the man moved in the same direction at the last minute.
Emergency services were called to the scene at 7.30pm, with paramedics rushing the injured man to the Princess Alexandra Hospital.
He was pronounced dead a short time later.
Police said the driver of the ute was badly shaken from the ordeal but not injured.
The police forensic crash unit is investigating the incident, which was the 10th road fatality in the Ipswich police district this year.
It was also the third in just six days, with a motorcyclist killed after colliding head-on with a truck at Camira last Thursday, and another rider killed after losing control of his motorcycle at Dundas, near Fernvale, on Monday.
Police said they were now concerned the toll could surpass the 2011 total figure of 16 fatalities before the end of the year.
Source: QT
RON Finemore’s name is always on the move, emblazoned on hundreds of red trucks travelling up and down the highways of eastern Australia.
Yesterday the trucking legend was in Albury to explain how he came to head Ron Finemore Transport, an operation with 460 staff, 160 trucks, a headquarters in Wodonga and depots in Wagga, Orange and Wacol, Queensland.
In short, he’s had a roller-coaster of a ride in more than 46 years in the industry.
He built up his original company, Finemore Holdings, from scratch in 1966 after pulling out of Melbourne University to help run the family farm at Mangoplah, near Wagga, when his father injured his leg.
“My parents did not want me to get into trucks,” he said.
Mr Finemore said he didn’t have much money at that time and worked as a roustabout and other jobs until he finally bought a truck to cart grain.
When Finemore Holdings sold to Toll Holdings for $120 million in 2001, it employed 2000 and had a fleet of 650 prime movers, 1080 trailers and more than 30 rigid vehicles.
The deal restrained Mr Finemore from working in the industry for two years, but when Ron Finemore Transport bought the failed Lewington truck business for $6.25 million in 2004, he became executive chairman, a job he still holds.
Today, the company’s ownership is split equally by the Finemore family and the CVC Group.
Addressing an Albury-Wodonga Business, Manufacturing and Innovation Festival breakfast at Rydges, Albury, Mr Finemore said one of the keys to success was building up trusting relationships and “trying to learn from others”.
Asked if the carbon tax would impact on the industry, he said it clearly would force companies to raise freight charges.
“But trucking isn’t going to disappear,’’ he said.
As an industry leader, he hopes governments and councils, especially in NSW, will act to reduce restrictions on B-doubles, and foresees wider use of B-triples and road trains.
Mr Finemore said some bridges on the Murray River and one near Wagga were impediments to efficient truck movements, although the NSW Roads Minister, Duncan Gay, was taking action in this area.
Source: The Border Mail
Two truck drivers were caught with drugs on the same highway in Victoria only one hour into a new police campaign targeting heavy vehicles.
Operation Austrans, which focuses on heavy vehicles, was launched last week following police data which show one in eight truck drivers tested positive to drugs in the past year.
Victoria Police Road Policing Superintendent Neville Taylor says the launch of the 22nd annual operation confirms why May is a good month to target drivers.
“I got notification from our offices within one hour (since the launch) they had two drivers on just one highway they were working on with positive drugs,” Taylor says.
“What that tells us is that this is absolutely right that police agencies and industries do this for the month of May to keep awareness.
“It’s a particular time of the year where we know a lot of the issues around fatigue and around road worthiness are very important…we have found that if we keep doing this during May it enables us to engage with the industry.”
Taylor says he has met a lot of trucking companies that have shown a strong commitment to addressing driver issues.
“I think there are some really positive things going on. There is some great evidence of behaviour change, initiatives alone by companies that have been putting it out to the rest of the industry,” he says.
“This is not all gloom and doom. This is positive stuff as well and the idea is to make sure everybody understands this and to be a part of it.”
Source: Owner / Driver
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