Truck death scandal sparks overhaul calls

22 Feb 2012, 6:45 pm   -   Source: AAP
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The NSW government says it will launch spot checks on heavy trucks after evidence of speed limit tampering by a company linked to a triple fatality.

Calls have grown for an overhaul of the trucking industry after the discovery of systemic safety breaches by a transport company linked to a triple road fatality in Sydney.

The NSW government announced it would spring spot checks on heavy vehicles but says it will await the outcome of a police investigation into Lennons Transport Services before taking further action.

Police descended on the company early on Wednesday after one of their drivers was charged over the January 24 accident on the Hume Highway in Menangle.

They later said they had found safety breaches, including attempts to manipulate speed limiters, on eight Lennons trucks.

Operation Marshall was formed after Calvyn Logan, 59, and his elderly parents Donald and Patricia Logan, aged in their 80s, died on January 24 when a B-double truck careered onto the wrong side of the road.

On Tuesday police charged Vincent George, 33, with three counts of dangerous driving occasioning death.

He will appear in Campbelltown Local Court on May 16.

On Wednesday, officers converged on the company's headquarters at Enfield, in Sydney's inner-west, and alerted authorities across NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.

They allegedly located 19 of 35 vehicles and found speed limiters on seven of the trucks had been altered so they could travel beyond the maximum 100km/h speed limit.

An eighth vehicle had its fuel system altered to deliver more fuel to the engine in order to achieve higher speeds, police said.

One driver was found with cannabis in his possession and another had exceeded fatigue restrictions by driving 17 hours in one day.

Police located another Lennons truck abandoned on a roadside in Victoria and the driver's logbook in a nearby rubbish bin.

Traffic and Highway Patrol Commander John Hartley said police also located doctored logbooks and many devices used to manipulate speed limits at Lennons offices.

RMS regulatory services director, Peter Wells, said tampering with trucks to exceed maximum speeds was well known in the industry.

"There is a practice in the industry of modifying speed limiters," Mr Wells told reporters in Sydney.

He would not comment on whether the RMS had been investigating Lennons before the crash but expected charges to be laid.

But the RMS did confirm that Lennons was slapped with a court supervisory intervention order in 2008 as a "systematic or persistent offender" of road laws.

NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson on Wednesday called on the state government to investigate the industry.

But when asked if a widespread review of the industry was needed, Premier Barry O'Farrell said "anything in that sense will be informed by what is discovered in this instance".

NSW Roads Minister Duncan Gay said trucks would be subject to random checks to stop "cowboy" operators from illegally tampering with them.

"I certainly would describe it as a blitz, and it's not the end," Mr Gay told reporters on Wednesday.

TWU National Secretary Tony Sheldon blamed retailers like Coles and Woolworths for putting "crazy" deadlines on drivers.

"The people that have been driving (with) these unsafe practices, and trucks being interfered with, has been as a result of the economic pressure from Coles and the other major retailers."

Lennons has been a member of TruckSafe since 1999, a voluntary regulatory scheme administered by the Australian Trucking Association (ATA), which gives transport companies federal fuel tax credits.

Auditors contact members in advance of an inspection but only inspect maintenance records.

They were last inspected in June 2010 and no breaches were found.

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