Mona Vale truck crash raises serious concerns about vehicle self-accreditation scheme
MEDIA RELEASE
The State government should urgently review the safety of outsourcing heavy vehicle checks following the fatal crash of a petrol tanker at Mona Vale in Sydney, according to the Public Service Association of NSW.
The tanker truck involved in the incident was operated by Cootes Transport, who self-accredits its heavy vehicles.
色狼社区Acting Senior Industrial Officer Ian Lambert said the road disaster called into question the public risk of allowing operators to self-assess the road-worthiness of their heavy vehicles, without independent verification.
鈥淭he State government must come clean on whether cutbacks and outsourcing of heavy vehicle safety inspections are placing lives at risk on NSW roads,鈥 Mr Lambert said.
鈥淭he 色狼社区calls on the NSW government to immediately re-instate regular, scheduled government inspections of all heavy vehicles.
鈥淲ithout independent, government oversight, we cannot have confidence in the safety of heavy vehicles on our roads.
鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to place faith in a model that has outsourced public safety functions without appropriate or regular inspection by Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) vehicle inspectors.
鈥淧ublic Servants from RMS have now been called in to investigate the safety of the entire Cootes Transport fleet, vehicle-by-vehicle, and we await the results with interest.
鈥淗owever, it leaves too many heavy vehicles of unknown safety unchecked and out on our roads,鈥 Mr Lambert said.