A sensible precaution !

This week saw a Sydney road accident that filled most people with horror.  A huge petrol tanker crashed on Mona Vale road and burst into flames.  Two men were incinerated in their cars, several others received life threatening burns and brave bystander action saved several lives.

The fact that just prior to the crash, the tanker driver was flashing his lights and sounding his air horn leaves a strong impression that this crash was caused by a mechanical fault, probably brake failure.    The very thought of a tanker containing hundreds of thousands of litres of petrol running out of control is enough to give other drivers a nightmare !

This tanker belonged to one of the leading fuel distribution companies in Australia and they run a fleet of two hundred such vehicles.   The police and the Roads and Maritime services ( RMS ) immediately ordered this company's other tankers running on New South Wales roads to report to vehicle checking stations for a safety inspection.   Many vehicles were found to have faults - and five were ordered off the road because of the nature of the needed repairs.

This should become standard procedure whenever a heavy vehicle crash appears to have possibly been caused by some sort of mechanical failure.  All other vehicles owned by that company are on the state vehicle register and heavy vehicles are required to travel through the checking stations dotted about the state highway system.   A general alert of the registrations required to be checked would produce immediate results.

All road vehicles require an annual safety check prior to registration but hard financial times sometimes result in day by day repairs being delayed.  It is a fact of life that there are defective vehicles on our roads and one of the main reasons for these heavy vehicle checking stations - is to keep that risk under control.

Knowing that if a vehicle crashes this will cause the entire fleet to be safety checked would be a huge incentive for fleet owners to pay close attention to required running repairs.  A good fleet safety reputation has a big influence on insurance premiums and is usually a factor when competing firms are being considered for a contract.

The action taken by police and RMS after this tragic accident is a sensible precaution.   It should become standard procedure whenever a road event is suspected to involver mechanical failure !