Why heavy vehicle safety is important

In Australia, around 18 per cent of all road crash deaths involve a heavy vehicle, according to the Fatal Heavy Vehicle Crashes Australia; Quarterly Bulletin Oct-Dec 2019. While heavy vehicle crashes occur less often than other vehicles, these collisions are more likely to result in serious injury or even fatality. 

Alarmingly, approximately 500 heavy truck occupants are hospitalised from road crashes each year, according to Road Trauma Involving Heavy Vehicles—Annual Summaries. Of these occupants, approximately 30 per cent are categorised with high threat to life injuries.

The greater mass of heavy vehicles contributes a considerable amount of kinetic energy to a crash, with the other vehicle or vulnerable road user in the collision enduring the worst of the impact. When a vehicle is overloaded, the risk escalates even further.

Since the creation of the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) there has been an increased focus on safety education on sharing the road with heavy vehicles, enforcement of heavy vehicle standards and safety-related campaigns, including chain of responsibility obligations to improve safety in transporting goods along the supply chain.

WIM Tech is helping to improve safety for heavy vehicles across a number of industries including construction, mining and agriculture through our innovative vehicle weighing systems. By giving businesses the opportunity to ensure loads leaving their site are compliant with vehicle mass limits, they are better protected against possible Chain of Responsibility breaches of the NHVL and other relevant road legislation.

Our scales are installed onsite and connected to data collection systems. Vehicles then drive over the scales where their weight information is immediately calculated via our custom software. The vehicle’s weight information is then displayed in real time via LED display board directly to the drivers and site personnel. This allows vehicles exceeding weight limits to be easily identifiable and load corrected before they hit the road.

If you would like to know more, please contact 0481 602 592 or email enquiries@wimtech.com.au