Truckie’s simple mistake that caused hours of traffic delays
A truck driver’s mistake has caused hours of delays for Sydney motorists and cost him more than $2000.
The driver ignored height warning signs on entering the Eastern Distributor with the crane arm still raised.
The control room was alerted when the truck passed the automatic height detectors but nothing could be done to stop it slamming into the tunnel’s ceiling.
Transurban’s Louise Beer said drivers need to be cautious, and incidents such as the one involving the crane armcould not only cause injury to the driver, any vehicles near him, and the road itself.
Response crews were at the scene in five minutes and the truck was cleared in 90 minutes, but by then the traffic stretched back 10 kilometres.
Ms Beer said if anyone heads into the tunnel and isn’t sure if they meet the height requirement, they should stop.
“If they pull over, stop and then we can send out our incident response crews and help them back out and take an alternate route,” she said.
It would have been a better alternative for the truck driver. He’s been fined $2200, lost six demerit points and been slugged an estimated $40,000 for tunnel repairs.
