Brad Gardner reported in a recent Australian Transport News article that the risks of death in the road transport industry have almost doubled in the last year alone.  Truck driving was identified as the most dangerous job. His article states: Safe Work Australia’s report on work-related fatalities in 2012 shows the fatality rate in road freight transport jumped from 14.68 per 100,000 workers in 2011 to 29.09 per 100,000 last year. The Work-Related Traumatic Injury Fatalities Australia 2012 says the rise equates to a fatality rate of 15 times the rate of all industries. Truck driving recorded 47 fatalities in 2012 – 33 more deaths than livestock farming, which ranked second on worker fatalities by occupation. “In 2012, 47 truck drivers were killed, up from 37 recorded in the previous year but considerably lower than the series high of 73 in 2007,” Safe Work Australia says. Over the 10 years from 2003 to 2012, Safe Work Australia says 523 truck drivers have died on the job. The figure represents 20 per cent of all workplace fatalities. (reference:  https://www.fullyloaded.com.au/industry-news/1311/road-freight-fatality-rate-spikes-in-latest-report) There are many contributing factors to this problem:  fatigue, speed, unrealistic deadlines, stress, inadequate vehicle maintenance and poor load restraint.  Whilst many would argue that the industry is over-regulated… could it be possible that genuine adherence to the Chain of Responsibility legislation, could dramatically reduce the tragic mortality in this industry? We believe so, which is why we’ve developed what we believe is Australia’s leading range of CoR interventions for companies involved in heavy vehicle transport. Visit our courses information page here.