NTI report: significant drop in truck fatalities
Latest data reveals the number of national road fatalities involving trucks has fallen appreciably over the past two years…According to the latest research conducted by the National Truck Accident Research Centre (NTARC), a division of leading truck insurer National Transport Insurance (NTI), road fatalities involving trucks have fallen by 14 per cent over in the last two years.
Furthermore, NTI says the latest findings have even prompted speculation that truck-involved fatalities could reach zero from 2032.
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Road safety progress
An analysis of Australia's largest database of major crashes involving heavy vehicles shows a downward trend, with the number of fatal truck accidents the lowest in nearly two decades.
The National Truck Accident Research Centre (NTARC) report released today at the Australian Trucking Association's Trucking Australia conference in Perth suggests Australia could be within a generation of achieving zero deaths from crashes involving heavy vehicles.
"To put the figures in perspective, the decline in the number of heavy-vehicle-involved deaths between the 2017 and 2019 reports equates to 1545 lives being saved," said report author, Adam Gibson, of NTI.
The report also found that fatigue-related truck accidents had also fallen across the nation.
"Encouragingly, we've seen the lowest number of fatigue-related crashes in the report's 16-year history," said Mr Gibson.
"Fatigue was the cause of 9.8 per cent of major crashes, down from 20 per cent a decade ago."
A state-by-state breakdown of the research revealed the following facts:
- Two out of every five serious fatigue accidents occur in New South Wales
- The risk of a fatigue accident occurring in Queensland is 51 per cent higher than the national average
- In Western Australia, 15 per cent of the state's major truck crashes are the result of fatigue
- Fatigue-related crashes in Victoria and South Australia decreased in the last two years by 68 per cent and 40 per cent respectively
"As an industry, we welcome new technology which alerts drivers to their fatigue, so that they might take a break and rest, before there’s any loss of life," said Mr Gibson.
More to be done
Australian Trucking Association Chair, Geoff Crouch, welcomed the results, although he cautioned there is still work to be done.
"We need to see a strong commitment from our government for practical safety solutions like an improved truck driver licensing system and mandatory safety technologies for new trucks," Mr Crouch said.
"The ATA is working hard to improve safety outcomes, focusing on the improvement and increase of heavy vehicle rest areas, making the fatigue laws more flexible and hearing from drivers first-hand what they think will work, as we are doing this week at our Trucking Australia conference."
The NTARC 2019 Major Accident Investigation Report can be found here.
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