Road Tragedy: TWU Calls for Full Inquiry
ONE boy died and another escaped as two truck crashes claimed the lives of their fathers and another man in NSW yesterday.
A 12-year-old boy and his father were killed when two semitrailers collided on the Newell Highway near the NSW-Queensland border about 4.30am yesterday.
The driver of the second truck also died.
Just hours earlier, on the Mid-North Coast, another truck driver and his young son were in a crash. The 38-year-old driver was killed but his 11-year-old son escaped with minor injuries.
The semitrailer, carrying a load of margarine, was travelling south on the Pacific Highway, five kilometres south of Nabiac, when it left the road and rolled several times before hitting a tree about 1am, police said.
The boy was taken to Manning Base Hospital for observation.
The truck drivers' union said the boys and their fathers would have been taking the chance to spend time together during the school holidays.
Mark Crosdale, a senior official with the Transport Workers Union, called on WorkCover NSW to investigate the crashes.
He said it was common for children to ride with their parents during school holidays.
"In many cases it's one of the few opportunities they get to spend quality time with their fathers," Mr Crosdale said.
"Often if you're a long-distance truck driver you don't spend much time at home."
Mr Crosdale said the fact children were involved in the accidents had hit the industry hard.
Trucks can legally carry a passenger provided they have appropriate seatbelts and other restraints, and children can travel in a truck's bunk bed so long as web matting separates it from the cabin.
"[This is] so that if anything happens … you're thrown into that matting," Mr Crosdale said.
The union said the deaths of three truck drivers in three hours highlighted the dangerous nature of long-distance driving.
"This is a symptom of an industry under a huge amount of stress," Mr Crosdale said. He said delivery pressures and fatigue combined to claim an average of two drivers every week in NSW.
"It's not until regulatory authorities start looking behind the scenes of what goes on, and not simply the carnage on the side of the road, that we're actually going to see it change."
Mr Crosdale said WorkCover should fully investigate yesterday's crashes.
"If three people were killed on a building site there'd be a full WorkCover investigation," he said.
"But if it can be passed off as a road accident then people seem to just bury the statistics."
Police will prepare a report on each crash for the coroner.
Sydney Morning Herald
10 January 2008
| 
PROTECTING AUSSIE JOBS 
