Fine ‘cheaper than using arrester bed’

Sep 11, 2014, updated May 13, 2025

The State Government is considering subsidising the cost of towing trucks out of arrester beds on the South Eastern Freeway following Tuesday’s near-miss incident.

Towing companies told InDaily this morning that removing a 70-tonne truck from an arrester bed would likely cost more than paying the maximum fine for driving without due care.

The 32-year-old Victorian truck driver who careened down the South Eastern Freeway with malfunctioning brakes on Tuesday was reported for non-aggravated driving without due care.

The maximum penalty for that offence is $2,500 and three demerit points. Towing companies estimate removing a similar truck from an arrester bed could cost up to $8000.

Towing costs are generally paid by the truck company.

Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Stephen Mullighan told ABC 891 radio this morning the government was considering subsidising the cost of towing a truck out of an arrester bed.

“We’ve got the Transport Department and also we’re talking to SAPOL (SA Police) about the feasibility and the implications of doing that and we hope to resolve that issue as quickly as possible,” Mullighan said.

“I think the other, much earlier and just as important issue is how we can prevent trucks getting into the situation where they’re out of control on the freeway.”

However, President of the South Australian Road Transport Association (SARTA) Sharon Middleton said the cost of using an arrester bed was unlikely to be at the front of a truck driver’s mind in an emergency.

“They would all be things that would be churning through your head, but when there’s an emergency happening and you’re in strife coming down that hill, I think (cost) would be the last thing in your mind,” she said.

“The sheer terror of what’s happening at that moment I would say would consume a driver’s mind about how he’s actually going to pull his rig up.”

Middleton said the main reason drivers in emergency situations might not use arrester beds on the South Eastern Freeway related to the beds’ placement on the road.

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“That very first arrester bed is to the left and the camber of the road is to the right, so it’s actually not a really easy arrester bed to negotiate when you’re in a truck,” she said.

“If it’s someone that maybe is from interstate or someone that’s inexperienced, (that driver) might think, at that point, that they can actually bring the vehicle under control.

“Then the problem with the second arrester bed (is that) it’s actually on a section of road that does tend to plateau out a little bit.

“So, again, for someone who’s inexperienced or someone from interstate, they may believe that they’ve actually got over the worst part of the descent, because it seems to be flattening out.

“That’s why we believe the third arrester bed is critical, because there’s no other way out at that point.”

SARTA will meet with Road Safety Minister Tony Piccolo next Tuesday to discuss ways in which the freeway could be made safer – including the construction of a third arrester bed and government subsidies for towing.

Mullighan said the government was happy to consider the trucking industry’s calls for a third arrester bed on the freeway.

“But I think what we’re … not looking at by talking about a third arrester bed, or even by talking about the Government picking up the tab of pulling trucks out of the existing arrester beds, is: how are we having trucks travelling down the lower parts of the South Eastern Freeway out of control and unable to pull up?”

He said operators who failed to maintain their trucks and remained on the road were irresponsible.

“Having a truck with a gross vehicle mass of well over 70 tonnes, travelling down a well-known, well-understood, steep decline without any brakes on its trailer is absolutely unfathomable to me,” he said.

“I can’t believe that there are trucking operators in this country that would be so unbelievably disrespectful of their community responsibilities to put a truck like that out on the road.

“… if we’re having truck operators who are knowingly or even unwittingly putting trucks out on the road that don’t even have functioning brakes on a rig which weighs well over 70 tonnes, that is absolutely inexcusable. “

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