Lower SE Freeway speeds: Coroner
UPDATED: A coronial report recommends lower speed limits for all vehicles on the South-Eastern freeway and specific training for truckies who use the notorious stretch of road descending towards Cross Road.
It’s also flagged increased penalties – including imprisonment — for driving heavy vehicles in the wrong gear.
The infamous freeway down-track has been the scene of several fatalities, most recently in August when an out-of-control sewage truck careered over Cross Rd at 150km/h.
In earlier incidents, James William Venning, 41, of Pinnaroo, died when the semi-trailer he was driving overturned and smashed into a retirement village wall at the intersection of Cross Road and Mount Barker Road, Myrtle Bank on January 18 last year, and John Posnakidis, 42, was killed when he was struck by a semi-trailer in October 2010.
Deputy Coroner Anthony Schapel today released the findings of inquiries into both deaths, arguing there is an “obvious need for a regime of training and licensing that will prevent a first time solo driver from driving a heavy vehicle on the South-Eastern Freeway descent”.
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It is believed that Venning had never driven an articulated heavy vehicle down the freeway before. His truck’s speed reached 148kph during the descent, during which it was not in gear.
“Inexperience, driver insouciance and a lack of knowledge of the road can be a deadly combination,” Schapel urges “that it be a compulsory part of training for trainee drivers to undergo tuition in respect of the required manner of driving on downhill gradients, including the use of safety ramps”, and specifically down the South-Eastern Freeway exit.
He also calls for a national framework to maintain the roadworthiness of heavy vehicles, and recommends the speed limit for such vehicles attempting the steep freeway descent be reduced to 40kph. This, however, would necessitate a reduced limit for cars – down 10 kph to 80kph. The deputy coroner notes that lower the speed limit “from 90 kilometres per hour to 80 kilometres per hour over an 8 kilometre journey would add only 42 seconds to that journey”.
“Therefore,” he says, “objections to the lowering of the general speed limit based purely upon inconvenience grounds would have to be regarded as irrational.”
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Steve Shearer, executive director of the South Australian Road Transport Association, agrees, but notes the political difficulty in implementing the lower limit, after the maximum speed was already reduced from 100kph to 90kph recently.
“I think that’s the bit that’s got politicians generally concerned,” he said.
The lower limit would be, in part, designed to facilitiate heavy vehicles that need to turn right onto Portrush Road weaving safely across lanes. However, SARTA has also recommended that all trucks adhere to a 40kph limit and remain in the left lane throughout the descent from Crafers, and that authorities allow a signal-controlled “right hook turn” from the left lane at the bottom of the freeway. Schapel did not address that point.
Shearer anticipated his board, “given all the discussions we’ve had before, would agree with the coroner’s findings almost completely”.
The caveat comes from Schapel’s suggestion for mandatory checking of trucks near the Heysen tunnels: “We’re not opposed in principle, the question is how can you actually make that work,” Shearer said.
The coroner also noted “inadequate” penalties for drivers “coasting and riding the brakes”, which currently draws a fine of $334 and three demerit points.
“Having regard to the danger such driving behaviour imposes on the public, this would represent a wholly disproportionate prosecutorial response to such an offence, particularly if the offence occurred on the South-Eastern Freeway. In the opinion of the Court such behaviour in and of itself should attract a significant licence disqualification, and in serious cases even imprisonment,” Schapel noted.
Shearer agrees to a point, arguing: “You can’t legislate to say what the right gear is … however, appropriate tough penalties aimed at the people acting unsafely and irresponsibly, we’ve always supported; it’s a question of how you structure that.”
The inquiry also called for further consideration of a third arrester bed, noting that had Venning “used the second safety ramp, it is highly likely that he would have survived”.
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