drove past this about 6 hours after it happened and the whole thing was in the same position, nothing had been moved, very sad altogether, 56 year old man and his 2 80 year old parents in the car, never stood a chance. cause of the accident still not known
Very sad but how could it be a moment’s lack of concentration and how did he go so far on the wrong carriageway ?
bald bloke:
Very sad but how could it be a moment’s lack of concentration and how did he go so far on the wrong carriageway ?
hard to say and even harded to speculate, but one fact is he was loaded with bricks, so about 64 tonne gross, he would have been doing about 100kph ish in the southbound lanes before whatever happened happened. i came south and saw the lock up marks in my lane so he definitely didnt just coast across the road, something happened and he slammed on, one rumour i heard was an L plater came across on him from the left as he was overtaking them and it all went down from there but thats simply hearsay.
id like to think maybe mechanical failure, steer tyre failure, airline failure perhaps, plenty of speculation that he fell asleep (11am), that he was on drugs (the company concerned have a long standing reputation for such, but still i dont feel thats relevant in an individual case), if he was on the phone, or facebooking or whatever at the time, they will find out, they will also be able to track his movements via toll cameras, load paperwork, and truck computer so theyll be able to work out if he was running legal, i fear not because most of us willrun out of sydney hot if we get an early load and park up just before the first camera, about 10kms from the accident, and have our 7-10 hour break there.
worst case scenario depending on findings - culpable driving and manslaughter = jail
Keep us informed then.
just worth considering that everything from news.com.au must be treated with great suspicion as its one of the worst “news” sites ive ever seen for lazy journalism
With great respect for those that have died in this accident, for whatever reason, the Hume Highway has always been a pretty dangerous road. And many, many of those that have died using it have been truck drivers.
Now that it’s been upgraded from single track pretty much all the way to Melbourne, it must be many times safer than it was when TNT and IPEC were competing to see who could get to down it the quickest.
This looks like a particularly nasty accident and regardless of who was at fault, any collision between a 64 tonne truck traveling at pretty much any speed, and a standard sedan, is almost certainly going to be fatal.
My deep condolences to the family of those killed, and those ultimately judged to be responsible.
well said, there are no winners out of this one.
this is still within city limits in my opinion, so its not really part of the racetrack that is the hume highway as such, but thats just my view
R.I.P.
In general, how prevelant is the taking of illegal stimulants in Australian or for that matter American trucking does anyone know. I know the distances compared to the UK are massive but can you imagine if anyone got wind of a driver on speed or some such over here just to get a load from a to b, off to the gallows with him i’m sure.
I know we all moan about VOSA and the rozzers from time to time but at least by the sounds of it, our roads are some of the safest in the world.
its overstated, maiunly due to general public perception, but i only know a few people who take the gear and to be honest id rather someone on the gear coming at me than a sleepy driver who hasnt got the balls to park it up
this might sound odd, but the most dangerous drivers i encounter are the jobsworth drivers who plod along with their head in the sand, with no road sharing etiquette and driving along in la la land, are the ones who are the biggest danger on these highways.
the ones who fire along at full steam 100 - 140 are the ones who are totally switched on, just an observation i get, and i run express 5 nights a week melbourne to sydney return
beattun:
well said, there are no winners out of this one.this is still within city limits in my opinion, so its not really part of the racetrack that is the hume highway as such, but thats just my view
Well it’s a long time ago but I used to come down the Paramatta Rd to get to the Hume, on my way to Melbourne, and I seem to recall that around Casula was where it turned into single carriageway. And it stayed that way until I reached Craigieburn and drove past the Ford factory on my right as I was coming into town.
It looks like it’s freeway all the way up to Wodonga at least now.
And yeah, I agree that some of the guys driving the IPEC rigid MAN’s and the even faster TNT rigid Kenworths were pretty good drivers. Unfortunately when they met someone else coming north at one of the single track bridges, around Tarcutta and Gundagai, the results were like a bomb had gone off.
But the car driver that went out on the Hume at night back then, was either a very good driver, or a very stupid driver…
Silver_Surfer:
R.I.P.In general, how prevelant is the taking of illegal stimulants in Australian or for that matter American trucking does anyone know. I know the distances compared to the UK are massive but can you imagine if anyone got wind of a driver on speed or some such over here just to get a load from a to b, off to the gallows with him i’m sure.
I know we all moan about VOSA and the rozzers from time to time but at least by the sounds of it, our roads are some of the safest in the world.
Well it used to happen a lot. But we had log books and carbon paper to record our hours back then.
Not sure if it’s still the case but in the middle of a NightNurse tablet there used to be a separate little pill that was virtually pure Benzedrine…
Silver_Surfer:
R.I.P.In general, how prevelant is the taking of illegal stimulants in Australian or for that matter American trucking does anyone know. I know the distances compared to the UK are massive but can you imagine if anyone got wind of a driver on speed or some such over here just to get a load from a to b, off to the gallows with him i’m sure.
I know we all moan about VOSA and the rozzers from time to time but at least by the sounds of it, our roads are some of the safest in the world.
you’d be surprised how prevalant drug taking amongst drivers in this country and mainland Europe actually is
I am here: maps.google.com/maps?ll=55.928444,-3.269683
It’s not theirs anymore,
This is our England now.
Paaaaarrrrrrttttttttyyyyyyyy
Okey-Didley-Dokely:
Silver_Surfer:
R.I.P.In general, how prevelant is the taking of illegal stimulants in Australian or for that matter American trucking does anyone know. I know the distances compared to the UK are massive but can you imagine if anyone got wind of a driver on speed or some such over here just to get a load from a to b, off to the gallows with him i’m sure.
I know we all moan about VOSA and the rozzers from time to time but at least by the sounds of it, our roads are some of the safest in the world.
you’d be surprised how prevalant drug taking amongst drivers in this country and mainland Europe actually is
care to back that up with some facts?
Yeah in play time Okey, not whilst on the limiter on the M6 surely.
beattun:
its overstated, maiunly due to general public perception, but i only know a few people who take the gear and to be honest id rather someone on the gear coming at me than a sleepy driver who hasnt got the balls to park it up
Yeah, neither is ideal but you’re probly right.
I have met quite a few night trunkers who take speed and smoke cannabis.
Also I worked with a driver whose cab was like a pharmacy.
We all saw that MRS driver on traffic cops didn’t we, do you think drink is the only addiction.
Don’t be naive about drug taking amongst drivers, a drug addict finds many ways to hide their problem
It’s not theirs anymore,
This is our England now.
Paaaaarrrrrrttttttttyyyyyyyy
I can understand the speed but I could think of nothing worse than driving an artic stoned.
There are heroin addicts who hold down jobs
It’s not theirs anymore,
This is our England now.
Paaaaarrrrrrttttttttyyyyyyyy
Silver_Surfer:
I can understand the speed but I could think of nothing worse than driving an artic stoned.
Nothing to it. 
Smoking hash is common for lorry drivers judging by the number of wagons with hot rock burns in the seats. 
A car maybe, i’d be in the services for a lie down every half hour in a truck though!