Although statistics show a decrease in road crashes involving trucks, the issue of speed limiter tampering is still rife in New South Wales. NSW Police have caught 2 truckies within a matter of hours for speed limiter tampering. The NSW Police’s highway patrol picked up a truck registered in Victoria at around 8:40am on the 5^th of August on the Hume Highway and then caught another truck at around 11:55am on the same day on Burley Griffin way. According to an article on Fullyloaded.com.au both trucks were defected and the drivers were issued with infringement and speed limiter non-compliance notices. The article goes on to explain:

“If trucks are found to have been tampered with, they will be grounded by the roadside with a red defect and the operator contacted 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” NSW Police Superintendent Stuart Smith says. “Despite the number of operations we do and the media coverage that results, there are still those operators and drivers that run a very great risk not only for themselves, but other road users.” The truck on Burley Griffin Way was found out after it was involved in an accident. A car attempted to overtake the truck before losing control and crashing at Binalong. Police looked at the truck driver’s work diary and then discovered the speed limiter breach when they examined the vehicle’s engine control module (ECM). The Victorian-registered truck was found out at Yass when officers downloaded its ECM data as part of heavy vehicle compliance checks on the Hume Highway.Source: https://www.fullyloaded.com.au/industry-news/1308/trucks-busted-in-nsw-for-speed-limiter-tampering

As the police superintendent went on to explain, it was a lucky thing that the actions of these truckies did not result in fatalities. Highway patrol officers are going to continue working closely with Roads and Maritime Service inspectors in downloading engine control systems to determine if speed tampering has occurred so truckies should not attempt to get away with such actions. The default speed limit on a road (where no lower speed limit is applicable) for a vehicle with a gross vehicle mass (GVM) or gross combination mass (GCM) over 4.5 tonnes, is 100 km/h. The person responsible for a vehicle which must be speed limited is guilty of an offence if the vehicle is not speed limiter compliant, the responsible person is not only the driver but may be the operator or another person in the chain of responsibility. According to NSW state law the person responsible for a vehicle includes the registered operator of the vehicle and a person who has a legal right to possession of the vehicle such as under a hire purchase arrangement or a lease. For more information about chain of responsibility rules and laws or to register to complete the course, visit our homepage today.