The Tunnel dilemma !

Huge traffic disruptions and a million dollar repair bill this week when a truck brought down the roof of the M5 tunnel in Sydney.  In that case is was not a matter of a too high load.  The truck was a tipper and the driver accidentally activated the tipping mechanism.

The vast majority of tunnel accidents in Sydney's eleven road tunnels is load excess beyond the average 4.4 metre tunnel height.   The law requires the maximum height of truckloads not to excess 4.3 metres, and in special circumstances a permit may be issued for loads above that requiring a special escort and a route plan that avoids tunnels.

Draconian measures are being taken by way of fines and registration cancellations for offenders, but we might be better to implement measures to stop overloaded trucks getting into tunnels in the first place.  When a truck is overloaded, the cause is usually the fork lift driver not adhering to safety regulations.  Automatic loss of a fork lift driving license for the person who loaded an offending truck would place responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the one person who controls that function.

All warehouses at which trucks are loaded should have a height bar which they must pass when they exit - and any truck that hits that height bar should not be able to proceed further without putting both the licenses of the truck driver and the fork life loader at risk of cancellation.     Both licenses are a valuable tool of trade - and a threat to end their method of earning a living should make many in the transport industry safety conscious.

We already have a height warning bar before tunnel entrances, but these need to be linked to traffic lights at the tunnel entrance.    Any truck hitting that height bar should automatically trip the light to red - and stop the flow into the tunnel.   It is a lot easier to adjust the load before the tunnel than trying to extricate a damaged truck and repair the tunnel once damage has occurred.

The preventive focus has been on drivers who do not understand the English language.  The more effective filter would be to try and stop overloaded trucks entering the Sydney road system. irrespective of who was driving them.   All the arterial roads that connect Sydney to the rest of the state need an electronic height bar to activate both a camera and an alarm.   An incoming truck that is over the load height would then be alerted to the Highway Patrol - and stopped before it could do further damage.

At present, the incidence of overloaded trucks seems to be a mixture of ignorance and cowboy operators who think they can get away with a law breach to make a bit of extra money.   The best way to shut down overloading is to install a system that automatically signals a breach - and brings retribution before damage is done.