New heavy vehicle brake standards announced

A change to the Australian Design Rules (ADRs) aimed at reducing heavy vehicle rollovers and similar loss-of-control crashes will come into effect from next year.

The ADRs will mandate Electronic Stability Control (ESC) for new heavy vehicle trailers from July 2019 and for selected new heavy trucks and buses from November 2020.

The changes were announced in a statement released yesterday (June 5) by Paul Fletcher, Federal Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities.

This will bring Australian technology into line with Europe, the US and other markets.

The statement said that approximately 20 per cent of the 200 deaths involving heavy trucks and buses can be linked to rollovers or loss of control, so by having advanced braking systems fitted these numbers would significantly reduce.

The changes are aimed to improve safety for all motorists and reduce the impact of road trauma on Australian communities by an estimated $216 million, the statement added.

Many heavy truck and bus rollovers involve only one vehicle and fitting ESC will, in many cases, prevent these kinds of crashes occurring.

Mr Fletcher’s statement went on to say that: “Feedback from industry and road agencies to a Regulation Impact Statement released earlier this year indicated broad support for the introduction of new ADRs for ESC and related roll stability control (RSC) systems.

“Industry and governments have been active in encouraging, or requiring the use of advanced braking systems such as ESC, antilock brake systems (ABS), electronic braking systems (EBS) and RSC in heavy vehicles.

“Peak industry bodies have also worked in partnership with the Commonwealth to minimise the regulatory costs, including by harmonising the ADR as much as possible with other major markets around the world.

“Consideration of ESC was an agreed action under action item 16(c) of the National Road Safety Strategy 2011-2020 and action item 8 of the National Road Safety Action Plan 2015-2017,” the statement concluded.