Another log truck accident

Richard Davis

Yet another log truck accident occurred on 29 February 2008 on the Gordon River Rd near the National Park Hotel. This is at least the 5th heavy vehicle accident in recent years on this 8 km stretch of road between National Park and Westaway. Three of these were rollovers of log trucks of the ‘superdog”’ configuration. In one instance a forestry vehicle was flattened. (see Tourism Page www.water-sos.org.) Heavy vehicles of the ‘superdog’ configuration (known as ‘wobble dogs’ in the industry) are inherently unstable. They should be banned from all roads – especially narrow, winding roads such as the Gordon River Rd. Those of us who live in the area, and visiting tourists, constantly have to run the gauntlet of speeding log trucks. They often straddle the double white lines, forcing us off the road edge with trucks often being badly loaded especially when young plantation timber is being carried. It is only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or killed. The forest industry stresses its claims of “workplace safety” for forestry workers. Yet when log trucks are in transit, safety for the public would appear to be discounted as collateral damage.