Page 3276 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 18 August 2009
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There is also a strong perception of an excessive enforcement focus on heavy vehicle drivers, owners and operators. Under the existing national regime only these entities may be found guilty of breaching the vehicle loading regulations. The imposition of liability on the driver, owner or operator does not address the role of others in the transport chain, including off-road parties who might influence the mass or dimension of a load or the manner of restraining that load. The concept of the chain of responsibility under the national compliance and enforcement scheme seeks to spread legal responsibility for unsafe practices in the transport industry beyond those who have traditionally borne the brunt of liability.
Noncompliance with the heavy vehicle mass, dimension and load restraint requirements raises significant road safety and infrastructure protection concerns. Vehicles loaded beyond their safety rating impose serious threats to road safety and threaten substantial infrastructure investment in roads, bridges and other road assets. For example, overloaded vehicles are less safe as they are more difficult to steer and braking is less effective. They are also usually slower, adversely impacting on traffic flow, increasing traffic congestion and frustrating other drivers. These vehicles also cause excessive road wear and increase the risk of infrastructure collapse, particularly bridge structures. The consequences can lead to inconvenience, road hazards and additional costs in maintaining the infrastructure.
Exceeding dimension limits for loads also has road safety and road infrastructure implications. Excess height can raise a vehicle’s centre of gravity, making the vehicle less stable when cornering or swerving to avoid an obstruction. Infrastructure such as overhead powerlines and low underpasses can be hit, causing obstructions leading to severe traffic disruption. Excess width generally intimidates other road users on multi-lane roads and can present a severe hazard. Excessively wide loads can also damage power poles and other street furniture. Excess length also presents a safety hazard to road users and infrastructure, particularly when cornering or turning.
As for load restraint, if a load is not properly secured, it can shift, making the vehicle less stable and increasing the likelihood of the vehicle overturning and injuring other road users. A lost load can disrupt traffic, create a safety hazard and damage road infrastructure if sufficiently heavy.
To address all these concerns, transport ministers directed that a legal framework be developed that would provide a model nationally consistent and best practice legislative scheme to improve compliance with, and enforcement of, the road transport laws. The outcome was the Road Transport Reform (Compliance and Enforcement) Bill, which was developed by the National Road Transport Commission in conjunction with representatives from federal, state and territory road transport agencies, the police, the heavy vehicle transport industry, the Transport Workers Union, occupational health and safety organisations and road user organisations. Australian transport and roads ministers then approved the national model Road Transport Reform (Compliance and Enforcement) Bill in November 2003.
The national model provisions were not drafted as template legislation as it was recognised that this national regulatory framework would need to be accommodated within state and territory legislative and legal policy frameworks. With this in mind
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