Renewed Calls for Truck Crash Fatalities to be Deemed Workplace Deaths
A spate of truck driver fatalities has led to renewed calls for truck crash fatalities to be classified as workplace deaths, this would widen the scope investigations.
At the moment road deaths involving trucks are considered road accidents which are counted in the road toll but aren’t considered workplace deaths and therefore do not warrant prosecutions under industrial law.
The Transport Workers Union (TWU) reinforces that trucks and roads are drivers’ place of work. The union’s national secretary Michael Kaine said many truck driver deaths aren’t classified as workplace deaths despite the fact that the truck and the roads are drivers’ places of work.
Also driver fatalities are seen as unfortunate “accidents” when incidents leading up to these fatalities may be entirely preventable.
The union said the real culprits behind truck driver deaths aren’t being held accountable.