Owner/Driver #339
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TWU Michael Kaine<br />
Unanswered questions<br />
Much publicity has centred on the Porsche driver,<br />
but what about the state of the pressured truckie?<br />
INCIDENTS LIKE what happened<br />
on the evening of April 22 last<br />
year on the Eastern Freeway<br />
in Kew, Victoria, rightly send<br />
shudders across our industry.<br />
The deaths of four police officers<br />
as a result of a truck crash is so<br />
tragic and abhorrent that it will end<br />
up as one of those crashes we won’t<br />
ever forget.<br />
Mohinder Singh has pleaded guilty<br />
to charges related to the crash after<br />
he veered into the emergency lane<br />
and hit the police officers gathered<br />
around a Porsche they had stopped.<br />
A recent court hearing on<br />
sentencing revealed some of the<br />
details of the case.<br />
Singh was not only high on ice but<br />
he was also using the truck to deliver<br />
drugs. He had had five hours’ sleep in<br />
the previous three days.<br />
The court heard Singh faced<br />
“sustained pressure” to drive that<br />
day from a supervisor at Connect<br />
Logistics. This supervisor also faces<br />
serious charges after police uncovered<br />
details of how Singh stated that<br />
another supervisor told him he<br />
wasn’t fit to drive but was told to<br />
do so nonetheless.<br />
Singh, the court also heard, was<br />
“vulnerable to influence” given his<br />
mental state and was concerned<br />
at being sacked as he was on a sixmonth<br />
probation with the company.<br />
We can say that these kinds of<br />
cases just don’t happen much in our<br />
industry anymore. But the fact is that<br />
this did happen and it shows in an<br />
extreme way how low things can go in<br />
our industry.<br />
We shouldn’t be shocked because<br />
the truth is there has been little or<br />
nothing to stop this happening and<br />
everything that is creating a race to<br />
the bottom in our industry.<br />
Singh will be sentenced this month<br />
and could be put away for several<br />
years. But will our industry really be<br />
any safer?<br />
The thing that should shock people<br />
is that while Singh and the supervisor<br />
have rightly faced scrutiny and<br />
criminal charges, not much light has<br />
been shone on how someone in that<br />
state can get put into a truck.<br />
DRUG DELIVERY<br />
A case as serious as this involving<br />
the deaths of four police officers<br />
should address all of the unanswered<br />
questions, including:<br />
• Why was nothing done about<br />
Singh’s behaviour, which must have<br />
been apparent before April 22?<br />
• How was he allowed to use the<br />
truck to deliver drugs, given all the<br />
truck monitoring technology that is<br />
much touted nowadays?<br />
• What training did he received?<br />
• When was he last drug-tested?<br />
• What pressures was the supervisor<br />
under to get the delivery done?<br />
• Was Connect Logistics under<br />
financial pressure that resulted in<br />
the driver and supervisor working<br />
there who were not fit for the job?<br />
• What were the terms and conditions<br />
of the contract to deliver the frozen<br />
chickens that Singh was carrying?<br />
• Did it allow for the safe transport of<br />
the goods?<br />
Singh’s sentencing this month will<br />
coincide with the fifth anniversary of<br />
the tearing down of an independent<br />
tribunal that was investigating risks<br />
to safety in trucking.<br />
Had the tribunal been in place, it<br />
could have investigated these issues<br />
and scrutinised the entire supply<br />
chain to see what went wrong. It<br />
could have made recommendations<br />
and orders if necessary to address the<br />
safety risks.<br />
The tribunal was investigating the<br />
oil, fuel and gas industry following<br />
the Mona Vale crash in 2013 in<br />
which two people were killed. That<br />
investigation was also abandoned,<br />
along with the tribunal.<br />
The fact is that the federal<br />
government, which abolished the<br />
tribunal, put nothing in its place to<br />
MICHAEL KAINE is the national secretary<br />
of the Transport Workers Union of<br />
Australia. Contact Michael at: NSW<br />
Transport Workers Union, Transport<br />
House, 188-390 Sussex Street, Sydney, NSW<br />
2000. twu@twu.com.au<br />
“How was he<br />
allowed to use<br />
the truck to<br />
deliver drugs?”<br />
BRING<br />
OUT THE<br />
MONSTER<br />
IN YOUR TRUCK<br />
address these kinds of safety risks. It has not<br />
addressed rates, despite promising to do so<br />
at the time, it has not held clients to account<br />
and it has cut the trucking community adrift.<br />
It has allowed the likes of Amazon and the<br />
gig economy to walk into Australia and drag<br />
conditions down further in the absence of<br />
regulation.<br />
SKIPPING BREAKS<br />
We are working with reputable industry<br />
bodies and clients which are interested in<br />
lifting standards in our industry and want<br />
to put an end to incidents like those on<br />
April 22, 2020. We are keen to work with<br />
these, and other, groups that care about<br />
the reputation of our industry and want<br />
to address the safety problems that see too<br />
many tragedies occurring.<br />
There have been 895 deaths from truck<br />
crashes in the last five years. There is no<br />
doubt that many of these lives would have<br />
been saved if we could ensure that no<br />
transport operator felt financial pressure<br />
that resulted in maintenance being delayed<br />
and truck drivers forced to speed, drive long<br />
hours and skip mandatory rest breaks.<br />
There are many in our industry on board<br />
with pushing for regulation to lift standards<br />
i n it. There are a few that, for ideological<br />
reasons, remain outside the tent, pushing<br />
meaningless voluntary codes and cosying up<br />
to and standing in for publicity shots with<br />
those in politics who have no interest in<br />
making our industry better.<br />
When it comes to road safety and stopping<br />
incidents like those from April 22 there<br />
should be no argument but that our industry<br />
has got to change.<br />
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APRIL 2021 29