Study reveals truckies more likely to crash on Monday, first six hours of journey

A RECENT accident study undertaken by the National Transport Insurance (NTI) reveals that most fatigue-related truck accidents occur within the first six hours of a driver's journey and one in four crashes happened on Mondays.

ATA chairman Trevor Martyn said the study, by ATA's foundation sponsor, raised important issues for the trucking industry, governments and regulators.

“The NTI study shows that driver fatigue and inappropriate speed for the conditions accounted for almost one in two serious truck accidents,” Trevor said.

“But the majority (89.3 per cent) of the fatigue crashes occurred on outbound journeys, usually within 500 kilometres of the point of departure.

According to the study, the vast majority of the speed-related crashes were due to trucks rolling over because they were going too fast when they changed direction.

The ATA said many of these accidents would not have been prevented by electronic speed monitoring. The trucks could have been travelling within the legal speed limit, but going too fast for the conditions.

The figures suggested that the industry and governments need to place a renewed emphasis on driver health and on making sure that drivers are fit for duty when they start work, and that consignors make a conscious effort to reduce stress and fatigue at the start of drivers' shifts by using better loading practices, making sure departures occur on time, and time slots are achievable.

The ATA also said governments need to build more rest areas within a 500km radius of the major cities.

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