A prime mover and trailer travelled approximately 140 metres through fences, across a road and into neighbouring businesses. The driver forgot the park brake, but the organisation’s maintenance system had already been warned twice that the audible safety control was disabled.

The Sea World helicopter crash was over in seconds, but the conditions behind it developed over months. This article examines how poor change management, stale information, failed communication and weak critical controls created a fatal conflict point, and what every workplace must learn from it.

Shortly after 2200h on 10 Jun 60, Trans Australia Airlines Flight 538 crashed into the sea while approaching Mackay Airport. The Fokker F27 Friendship, registered VH-TFB and named Abel Tasman, was carrying 25 passengers and four crew, and every person aboard was killed. Heavy fog had affected Mackay Airport and prevented the aircraft from completing an earlier landing attempt. The crew remained near Mackay while conditions were monitored, but contact was subsequently lost dur

On 06 May 90, a heritage passenger train hauled by steam locomotive 3801 stalled while climbing the Cowan Bank, approximately five kilometres south of Brooklyn on the Sydney to Newcastle railway. A following CityRail interurban passenger train received a proceed indication and struck the rear of the stationary excursion train, killing six people and injuring 93. The final carriage of the excursion train was destroyed and the front of the interurban train was extensively damag

In the early hours of 20 Oct 89, a semi-trailer crossed onto the wrong side of the Pacific Highway near Cowper, north of Grafton, and struck an approaching passenger coach. The collision tore open the driver’s side of the coach, killed 21 people and injured another 22, while the coach came to rest in a roadside ditch only metres from the Clarence River. The truck driver was subsequently found to have been under the influence of amphetamines. ABC News retrospective examining t

On 22 Sep 25, Onkar Group Pty Ltd, trading as Bakeology, and its sole director were convicted and fined a combined $1.43 million in the Wangaratta County Court after the fatigue-related death of a 27-year-old delivery driver. WorkSafe Victoria reported that the driver was 12 hours into an overnight shift when his van drifted into the path of an oncoming truck at Kialla West, south of Shepparton, in August 2022. Image generated for visual effect. The facts are brutal because t

On the night of 03 Feb 26, a single-vehicle crash on Magpie Creek Road at Condowie, east of Snowtown in regional South Australia, resulted in the death of a 48-year-old local man. Emergency services were called shortly after 2300h, with the sole occupant pronounced deceased at the scene. Major Crash investigators from South Australia Police have since commenced a formal investigation and are seeking information from the public. Rural and regional roads come with inherent risk

The new 2026 Master Code fundamentally changes how Chain of Responsibility risks must be managed and documented to satisfy regulator expectations rather than just be good practice. The 2026 Master Code is now officially published by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator as a Registered Industry Code of Practice to support safety across the heavy vehicle industry. It sets out what parties in the Chain of Responsibility reasonably need to do to manage hazards and risks under

Two major developments in heavy vehicle safety and compliance are converging right now, and fleets running multi‑axle combinations or imported trailers need to act before the regulatory and product risk windows widen. Recent recalls out of North America provide a practical reminder of hardware failure risk. The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator has just opened a technical consultation on updating the high‑speed and stability standards in the Australian Performance Based Stand

In 2025, regulators are not reinventing load restraint. They are doubling down on it. The release of the NHVR Load Restraint Guide 2025, alongside refreshed education materials from Safe Work Australia, makes one thing clear. Accurate, adequate load restraint remains a frontline control in heavy vehicle safety, and regulators are still seeing the same failures play out on Australian roads. Despite decades of guidance, load shift, load loss, and inadequate restraint continue

A coronial inquest in Western Australia has delivered a confronting finding for anyone responsible for heavy vehicle safety. A simple, unauthorised cabin modification materially extended a prime mover’s frontal blind spot and a worker was killed. This was not a high-speed crash, a driver sleeping at the wheel, or dangerous driving. I t happened during a routine departure from a roadhouse parking bay. A modified foil sunshade, fitted inside the windscreen, obstructed the driv

After inspecting transport facilities across Australia and New Zealand — from container yards and freight depots to distribution centres...

As electric vehicles (EVs) become increasingly popular in Australia, workplaces are starting to integrate them into their fleets. EVs...

I grew up around trucks, with my dearly-departed grandpa being a truck driver both in the Australian Army as a Bombardier "Nasho", and on...

Having family and mates in the force, previously working alongside police members, and as a fellow first responder to Motor Vehicle...

The recent prosecution of Minus 1 Refrigerated Transport Pty Ltd serves as a stark warning to businesses about the consequences of...