[Greens-Media] Tas Greens_N-E School Buses Need Curfew on Log Trucks_K Booth MP

[greens at parliament.tas.gov.au]

NORTH EAST LOG TRUCK THREAT

Parents Scared For Their Children's Safety

Kim Booth MP
Greens Shadow Forestry Spokesperson

Thursday, 13 November 2008
Contact: State Parliamentary Offices of the Tasmanian Greens, (03) 6233
8300

www.tas.greens.org.au


The Tasmanian Greens today called on Infrastructure Minister Graeme
Sturges to impose a curfew on log trucks using the narrow and windy
roads of North East Tasmania while school buses are picking up and
dropping-off students.  

Greens Shadow Forests spokesperson Kim Booth MP said the parents
involved feel completely ignored by all relevant authorities after
spending two years trying to raise their concerns with the Labor
government about log trucks sharing narrow windy roads with the school
buses that are carrying their children.

Mr Booth also acknowledged that the current Infrastructure Minister,
Graeme Sturges, has said that he will investigate the issue and report
back to Parliament, however, the Minister's current lack of knowledge
about this issue is concerning given that the parents report telephone
conversations about this issue with the offices of  three separate
Infrastructure Ministers during the past two years.

"Minister Sturges should protect the parents and children of the North
East and immediately impose a curfew on log truck movements during
school bus travelling times," said Mr Booth.

"Parents have contacted the Greens saying that they have rung the
offices of three different Infrastructure Ministers, the Transport
Department, Councils, Forestry Tasmania, Gunns and the log-truck driver
complaints phone line (which apparently rings out!) over the last 2
years yet all of these conversations and reports have been ignored."

"After two years of raising concerns about log trucks on the narrow
winding passes throughout the North East, only to be ignored, the
parents are totally fed up and community concern and fear is growing."

"It is very worrying that after years of work on the issue and the
community's attempts to raise these concerns, the current Infrastructure
Minister has absolutely no idea about the problem."

"These parents are now thinking about blockading the log trucks during
school bus travelling times in an effort to increase road safety for
their children, a last-resort option that nobody should be forced to
take."

"The spectre of a school bus being taken out by a log truck on one of
these narrow and windy roads is a tragedy almost too awful to
contemplate - it is time for action from this Minister, now," said Mr
Booth. 

CONTACTS OF LOCAL COMMUNITY MEMBERS:
- Ms Lesley Nicklason on: 0400 557 418
- Ms Sandy Winstanley on 6373 6106
-----------------------------
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Kim Booth MP's 5 July 2007 question to
then-Infrastructure Minister Jim Cox on the issue of log trucks using
narrow and windy roads in North East Tasmania:

Mr BOOTH (Question) -  My question is to the Minister for
Infrastructure.  Minister, is it a fact that DIER have given special
permits for log trucks up to 21 metres in length to be overloaded an
extra half ton per axle and to travel on the Weldborough Pass? Is it
also a fact that they were actually using a narrow white wooden bridge
near the Goulds Country turnoff that is not capable of carrying those
loads?

Why has your department granted a special permit for these vehicles to
be overloaded?  Has a proper route survey been done to assess the
route's suitability for overweight and overlength period of this class,
and did that survey include a swept path analysis for overlength
vehicles?  If such a survey was done, will you now table it?  If not,
will you now act to bring those vehicles into conformity with the
traffic regulations? IS IT NOT A FACT THAT ON SOME CORNERS THESE
BEHICLES ARE INCAPABLE OF REMAINING WITHIN THEIR OWN LANE, THUS CREATING
A SERIOUS CRASH HAZARD? [Our Emphasis]

Mr COX - I am aware of part of the questions that he raises.  We
received in my office a photo of a truck supposedly on those roads.  I
suspect I know where that photo came from.  I have asked the department
to have a look at that and confirm.  As to the reports, I am happy to
get advice on that and follow it up with the member.




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