They’re fecking huge
I’ll preface this with the opinion that I have a lot of respect for truck drivers. Well, most of the professional ones I’ve encountered and had the opportunity to have a chat and peacefully exchange views.
However there are cowboys & fkwts out on the roads, but they’re probably cowboys & fkwts to virtually every other road user.
This popped up in todays media: The Age: Anger over mega-trucks plan
Massive B-triple trucks eight times the length of a family car would be allowed to run on CityLink and many other main commuter routes, under a secret Department of Transport plan leaked to the State Opposition.
- ‘Secret’ plan
- Transport strategy
- Restrictions lifted
The leaked document shows the routes B-triples - prime movers towing three trailers that can weigh up to 82 tonnes and are up to 36 metres long - would take through Melbourne, and around Victoria. B-triples weigh 74 times more than a family car, and overtaking one is the equivalent of passing eight motor vehicles, according to NSW motoring organisation the NRMA.
But’s it’s hardly *new* news as these plan have been afoot for ages, see the NTC site for more and Alan Parkers detailed contribution from 1998.
I’ll circumvent a long rant by simply mentioning that if these monsters are allowed on more roads, then at the very least a major road user education program and complusory side guards should be enacted immediately.
Although, as usual, don’t hold your breath waiting for the revelant authorities to do the right thing. Will it take someone or something, akin to the shock of Darren Millane’s accident, to speed up any changes, such as what happened with rear impact guards in the early 1990’s?
