Over half of trucks fail brake test

More than half the trucks tested by the Land Transport Safety Authority do not meet legal brake requirements and police need extra resources to ensure safety standards are met, Parliament was told yesterday.

A plan by police to employ five additional safety officers to be equipped with mobile roller brake testing equipment has been endorsed by the Office of the Auditor-General.

Extra resources would enable police to undertake further enforcement action at the same time, lead auditor Pat Hoy said in the Audit Office's follow-up report into the 1996 transport committee inquiry into truck crashes.

"The problem is that trucks do such high mileage, 100,000km and 200,000km, between inspections," he told the transport and industrial relations select committee.

"Perhaps there's a need to look at the Certificate of Fitness arrangements because they're clearly not working."

The 1996 report recommended urgent attention be given to improving the brakes of heavy vehicles after surveys showed that more than half the trucks tested did not meet legal brake requirements.

"Little has changed since then," the follow-up report found.

Mr Hoy said that in 1996 there was "virtually no enforcement of truck speeds".

"Nothing much changed until police formed the highway patrol in 2000 and since 2000 mean speeds have fallen quite significantly.

"Mean speeds for trucks are now under the legal limit of 90km/h."

The level of enforcement had been increasing but was still low, the follow-up report found.

Truck crashes account for 20 per cent of all road deaths and 7.5 per cent of all road injuries.

According to National Party transport spokesman Maurice Williamson, trucks routinely drive at more than 100km/h down the Bombay Hills to the Auckland motorway, and are ignored by police.

- NZPA

Failing to stop

* 65 per cent of heavy vehicles failed the minimum brake performance requirement, an LTSA survey in 2003 found.
* 87 per cent of semi trailers and 79 per cent of fully laden trailers failed a roadside brake test.