Industry safety

I grew up on 10 to 2, but for cornering, both on 12 coming down both on 6 with one hand gripping and the other following ready to grip, then back up again reversing the grip (UK police training film).
20 to 4 was confined to Rolls-Royce drivers.

Roderick.

Proposal to ‘electric shock’ drowsy truck drivers in wake of fatal crashes slammed.
news.com.au January 17, 2018.
A DAY after two people died when a B-double slammed into a queue of vehicles, a NSW minister has come under fire from the truckies union for suggesting drivers could receive “electric shocks” to keep them alert.
But Roads Minister Melinda Pavey said union members have their “heads in the sand” if they aren’t willing to discuss any new road safety technology.
On Tuesday, 19-year-old Hannah Ferguson and her boyfriend Reagan Skinner died on the Newell Highway, north of Dubbo in the NSW central west, when a truck ploughed into six vehicles waiting at roadworks.
Two people were trapped in the wreckage for four hours. The cause of the incident, which was described as so horrific that a construction worker collapsed in shock, has yet to be determined.
Talking to ABC radio on Wednesday morning, Ms Pavey said consideration should be given to in-cab devices that could recognise when a truck driver was losing concentration.
“The technology now is so advanced, a driver can be driving and get an electric shock if they look away from the windscreen for more than two seconds,” she said.
Transport Workers Union said that it was offensive and dangerous to propose “electrocuting drivers” and the minister was being “heartless, arrogant and completely incompetent”.
Richard Olsen, NSW State Secretary of the TWU, said the overwhelming cause of the majority of truck-related accidents was not drivers, but “extreme and unfair working conditions” which the NSW Government was failing to address.
“Instead of blaming drivers, the minister must ensure that all levels of the supply chain take responsibility.
“This week alone, three truck drivers have died on the job, and the lives of two car drivers have also been lost,” he said.
“To not only ignore the actual problems that are killing people on our roads, but to also propose electrocuting people driving heavy vehicles, is not only baffling and deeply offensive to the families of those killed, it is also unconscionably dangerous in its negligence.”
The row comes as the NSW government has begun a crackdown on trucking companies flouting safety regulations following a spate of fatal crashes.
Talking to news.com.au, Ms Pavey said the TWU had “completely misconstrued” her comments.
“The TWU are talking about themselves on a day when it’s about the community and road safety.”
Several devices are on the market which claim to be able to rouse drowsy drivers and keep their eyes on the road.
These include cameras that monitor the driver’s eyelids and how many times they look away from the road. If they are deemed to have lost concentration, an audible alert sounds in the cab and the driver’s seat vibrates.
However, another system, which involves the driver wearing a bracelet, delivers a “gentle electric shock” should 16 indicators — such as heart beat — fall below a certain level.
“If a driver is a fluttering their eyes in tiredness or looking away, there are a variety of measures that can alert the driver,” Ms Pavey said.
“That can be through an electronic jab through the seat that gives a slight buzz or a message and some of our best companies are using that technology and investing in their workforce and safety.”
Despite insisting the union had taken her comments out of context, Ms Pavey nonetheless didn’t rule out devices that administered a shock.
“If we can’t have a decent honest conversation about the technology available, we have some issues. It’s not the time to put our heads in the sand.
“No one [wants] drivers out there in unsafe conditions and we do have a challenging shortage of drivers in an industry full of good people,” she said.
“It has been a struggle for some drivers to be monitored and but many have embraced it because they want to return to their families at the end of the day.”
On Wednesday, Ms Pavey said the government would throw the book at trucking companies and drivers doing the wrong thing.
Five people have died in three separate crashes involving trucks on NSW roads since Monday. There has been 45 per cent increase in heavy vehicle accidents on the state’s roads between 2016 and 2017.
Authorities began investigating a transport company involved in Monday’s fiery crash on the M1 south of Newcastle that killed a tanker driver. Police and Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) officers were seen inspecting vehicles at Garousse’s depot in Sydney’s west.
“The operation is another warning to operators to be aware they will be targeted and they will be removed from our roads if they are found to be unsafe,” said RMS Director of Compliance Roger Weeks.
< www.heraldsun.com.au/motoring/proposal-t...4993848509b6dad40731 >
* Finemores at Wodonga already have these in many of their vehicles.
* I lived beside the Warrego Highway between Ipswich and Toowoomba for several years, in which time I saw dozens of serious accidents involving trucks. In all there were several deaths and I think all were car drivers - as expected when such heavily laden and solidly built road monsters are involved. The truth is that despite these vehicles still displaying the old "speed ,limited to 100 klms per hour" signs on them, NONE of them are. Many many times I am overtaken when I am doing 100 kph and often I estimate trucks are doing between 110 and 120 kph on a 100 kph stretch of road. These things cannot stop at that speed. During this time I have seen MANY car drivers pulled over and being booked for speeding - bit I have never, NEVER seen a truck being booked for speeding and they speed all the time. So if this "every k over is a killer" propaganda is "really" what drives the safety campaign, then WHY are trucks never booked for speeding? And I repeat this again, I have seen MANY car drivers being booked but NEVER a truck and I see speeding trucks all the time.
* Check the accuracy of your speedometer before accusing others of speeding. Your speedometer can read up to 10% fast so you think that others are doing 110 because you are only doing 90.
* They are all on 2 way radios and pretty much know where every radar and every cop on the road is at any given time.

Waiting for Ergon to reconnect power for 5 hours yesterday so I checked out Dash Cam Aus. Admittedly they've chosen some beauties but can you believe the stupidity of these drivers.
I don't mean those clearly at fault, I mean the drongos hell bent on suicide. Some clown in a car beside the last set of axles on a "B" double which has decided to move across. I could care less if he indicated or not, to watch this tool continue accelerating up passed the centre axles and all the while blowing his horn. By the time he got to the drive axles there was no road left, yet he's still blowing the horn and still trying to overtake. How embarrassing to even post such footage.
It's so easy to ease off, let the truck in and everyone's happy, yet it's a rare event.
Some drivers do need educating.
The footage should not have been included in their "worst of" series, rather it should be in a series off what NOT to do.

My other rant concerns road works. I've recently been through that section around Dubbo as well as countless others.
As it was Christmas, no-one was working. Contractors install a set of traffic lights and go home. So you're sitting at a red light at midnight with nothing coming the other way, clever stuff hey.
Back in the day, contractors were required to build a detour, but how long since you've seen any. I did cross one where the original culvert was totally gone and a new higher level road was under construction. No traffic lights just a reduced road speed on the sealed detour and we're all through without stopping.
I have been involved with civil works where unless we'd obviously altered the safety of the roadway, original speed signs were to be re-installed when not working. But all that involves a risk assessment, loads of paper work and so on, much easier to leave the slow signage and go home.
Instead of consideration for road users, it's gone totally the other way with stop-go men and other crazy expensive electronic signage.
No co-ordination between road works even though they could be just a few k's apart. You'll stop at one, get rolling and hello, old mate stops us all again.
A classic is the major works at the Sunny Coast turnoff which involves about 10-15k of works. It's a massive project thoroughly deserving of detours due to the long contract time and the huge volume of traffic. Nope, whack up the 80 and 60 signs, all good. After an uproar from commuters, the signs were covered at night when the 110k and 100k were resumed. Then a worked was killed and now we're crawling along again. The fact the unfortunate worker was bowled over by a hit and run car thief was not taken into account, apparently we're all out to run down road workers.
Rant over.

.
.......As far as hand positions on the wheel goes .........with us poor old blokes in the old slimline KWs,
8V71 and 15 speeder.....you never let go of the gear lever, so you mostly drove one handed , and ended up driving that
way all the time............
Then when the SARs hit the road with the Shepherd steer boxes , a lot of blokes were having trouble keeping them
in a straight line............the official fix was to use the palm of one hand on the wheel...........
So yes , you use what suits you and the situation demands........just don't do it while you are doing a driving test................
.
.......................Billy..........................

Fully agreed with roadwork limits: too low for too long from the outset, then left in place when there is no work happening.

Roderick.

Electric shocks for tired truckies not such a dumb idea Fri.19.1.18.
Is electric shock treatment for fatigued truck drivers really the solution to the horror road toll?
It might sound a little drastic, but it’s not that far from a sensible idea.
NSW Transport Minister Melinda Pavey raised the topic this week while talking about the tragic spate of fatal crashes involving truck drivers.
Technology to detect fatigue in truck drivers has been around for several years and the device the Minister was referring to is a clever one that has been trialled in the mining industry. A camera monitors a driver’s eye movements, looks for telltale signs of fatigue and then delivers a vibration (not really an electric shock) through the seat to alert the driver. In the UK a wristband vibrates to warn of fatigue.
Several vehicle makers have similar technology on their cars and trucks and it shows great promise, although it’s still in its infancy.
NSW Roads Minister Melinda Pavey has suggested electric shocks for truckies could reduce road fatalities. (Pic: Brendan Esposito)
The real safety silver bullet, though, is autonomous emergency braking, technology that is becoming increasingly common in cars, even budget-priced hatchbacks.
AEB uses cameras and radar to scan the road ahead and identify potential accidents. If it senses a collision it will warn the driver. If the driver isn’t paying attention it will slam on the brakes.
It’s effective because it takes a drowsy or distracted driver out of the equation.
Ironically, the minister was launching a new AEB testing facility when it was sidetracked by her electric shock comments.
Perhaps it was a diversionary tactic to disguise the fact that Australia trails Europe in mandating this lifesaving technology on our deadliest vehicles. AEB has been mandated in Europe since 2013 — and lane departure warning since 2015 — but neither are even on the drawing board in Australia.
There are many car models already fitted with AEB. (Pic: Joshua Dowling).
Mercedes-Benz trucks in Australia are fitted with AEB, along with similar drowsy driver tech. In the case of Benz, the truck monitors a driver’s steering inputs and delivers a vibration through the steering wheel if they detect lazy driving. They also have a lane departure warning, which sets off an alarm if the truck crosses the centre line or roadside markers.
Many luxury cars can steer themselves back into a lane if the driver strays. Some will even gradually bring the car to a halt if they can’t detect steering inputs.
Problem is, none of this technology was readily available 12 years ago, and the average age of our truck fleet is 12 years. That could change quickly, though, as AEB can be retrofitted to trucks. It’s expensive to install, though, and transport companies working on razor-thin margins are unlikely to adopt it unless forced, or encouraged to.
So while it’s refreshing to see a minister looking outside the square to fix the disastrous road toll, it would be better still if they bit the bullet and made lifesaving AEB mandatory.
Richard Blackburn is the editor of News Corp’s Motoring liftout.
< www.heraldsun.com.au/rendezview/electric...5fb4919a72db61dd3ecd >

jeffo wrote: My other rant concerns road works. .

Just before christmas I went through roadworks just south of Rockhampton.

There was an 80 sign on one side of the road, a 60 on the other and on the same post as the 60 sign, there was a 40 sign below it.

Given the number of road traffic controllers on these roads and the little they actually do, you would think they could do a bit better then that.

Then I went past some more roadworks, the workers were doing a box culvert and were working right on the road limit. it should have been a 40 zone but it was a 60 zone. Then further along no one working and it was still 60. Then some idiot took out a bridge guard rail and it is down to 60 and has been so for months, yet another bridge elsewhere with no guardrails is 100.

I often wonder what are the requirements to get these sorts of jobs. Intelligence does not seem to be one of them. I guess if you can not be sacked, then why give a damn.

Yes RC those Rocky roadworks have been dragging on for months with not a lot to show for it, pretty slow going.
Better than what's going on in NSW though, what a cock up that Pacific upgrade is.
There's sections of highway totally finished, road signage, lights, grassed edges the works.
Then you come to a creek and there's no bridge, nothing even started.
Have a relation who has quoted on survey contracts for one section 2x times. Contract is over a year delayed and still not let.

Maybe, just maybe, our maximum permitted driving hours are excessive. I could not do 12 hour shifts six days per week on an ongoing basis but I know interstate drivers who are expected to do that each week and stretch it at every opportunity.

I understand that the work time constraints are set to help manage fatigue for those on the road most of the day, most days, but as a farmer who nowadays only does about 4000km a year over a 6-8 week period of the grain harvest, doing 80km per load round trip, the current constraints can be really hard to work within.
If we have favourable harvesting weather, it is just manageable to work within the weekly limits and have sunday off. But when wet weather is forecast, the grain receival sites stay open for a couple of extra hours per day, and it is then that it would be advantageous to be able to work over the daily limit for 2 or 3 days in a row, knowing we will be having the next 9 or 10 days resting while we are waiting for the crops to dry out again.
Although we don't have to fill in a log book for this work, we still have to keep work time records, so it would be advantageous to me if there was an averaging system over a 4 week period. Currently it would be easy to work over the daily allowable limit, but i would be well under the weekly limit, if the times were averaged for the period of harvest.
I would think a lot of general freight movement isn't restricted by the weather, but it feels like my overall productive ability each week is being constantly thwarted over the 6-8 week period of my harvest, just because my work is totally weather dependent, and i have to work within the "one size fits all" rules.
I realise the 2 or 3 days that it would be handy to be able to work a bit longer, could be said to be when an accident is more likely to occur, so to follow on from AtkiPete, if daily hours were to be reduced, i would expect to have the ability to work every day of my harvest.
I am just stating how the current rules affect me.
As a side note, i rang the NHVR a while back, asking who i should contact to get someone of authority to come to an agricultural bureau meeting to explain to farmers like me who seldom go far enough to need to fill in a log book, how to do it correctly. The NHVR didn't know who was responsible for that sort of thing and i was told to ring Transport SA, who told me to contact SAPOL, who told me it was nothing to do with them, and to contact Transport SA, it just went around in circles. Seems they are all keen to tell us when we are doing something wrong, but none are too keen when it comes to being proactive.

Jeffo, I think I saw the same dash cam footage with that double, and I agree the car driver was irresponsible, but the "driver, (and I use the term generically), was an absolute disgrace to the industry, and gets us all tarred with the same brush. Just an arrogant pig, and there is no way he could claim the little wheels was in a blindspot. He was changing lanes come hell or high water, and everybody else look out.