MEDIA RELEASE
The State government should urgently review the safety of outsourcing heavy vehicle checks following the fatal crash of a petrol tanker at Mona Vale in Sydney, according to the Public Service Association of NSW.
The tanker truck involved in the incident was operated by Cootes Transport, who self-accredits its heavy vehicles.
PSA Acting Senior Industrial Officer Ian Lambert said the road disaster called into question the public risk of allowing operators to self-assess the road-worthiness of their heavy vehicles, without independent verification.
“The State government must come clean on whether cutbacks and outsourcing of heavy vehicle safety inspections are placing lives at risk on NSW roads,” Mr Lambert said.
“The PSA calls on the NSW government to immediately re-instate regular, scheduled government inspections of all heavy vehicles.
“Without independent, government oversight, we cannot have confidence in the safety of heavy vehicles on our roads.
“It’s hard to place faith in a model that has outsourced public safety functions without appropriate or regular inspection by Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) vehicle inspectors.
“Public Servants from RMS have now been called in to investigate the safety of the entire Cootes Transport fleet, vehicle-by-vehicle, and we await the results with interest.
“However, it leaves too many heavy vehicles of unknown safety unchecked and out on our roads,” Mr Lambert said.