Thread: Mad Truck Driver

Originally Posted by Eevo

The frequency of traffic collisions in India is amongst the highest in the world. A National Crime Records Bureau (NCR report revealed that every year, more than 135,000 traffic collision-relateddeaths occur in India.

enough said

Not a problem over there as there are plenty of replacements

This thread is starting to sound like the (used to be millers pub) in Parramatta on a friday night . !! .

Yes, India's driving habits are total crap, I should have chosen my wording better... What I meant was my perception of what constitutes normal driving has been permanently altered.

Originally Posted by solmanic

Yes, India's driving habits are total crap, I should have chosen my wording better... What I meant was my perception of what constitutes normal driving has been permanently altered.

It was a bit of an eye opener being driven around over there by a local. About a 250-300 Klm drive up to Nasic through a rather windy pass up a mountain range,,, my offsider wouldn't look at the road ahead at all, and he'd been there a couple of times already. Coming head to head with two trucks across the road But you do get used to it. Generally they are very courteous drivers there,, but here, because we follow logical rules,, it throws you off somewhat.

From Water Buffalo to Prado in 2 months is always going to cause problems

Yeah, I have had a couple of truly frightening experiences with Indian sub continent drivers.
Once in about 1985 I caught Limo from Riyadh airport to home. We went out on the excellent expressway and the speedo went up and up through the ding dong at 130 to about 200 in a Nissan 300C.

I asked the driver how long he had been driving. "oh sir I have been driving for one week." where are you from?
"Bangladesh Sir" Shouwai shouwai , (slow down slow down) said through gritted teeth.

Again going from Mumbai to Pune on the only expressway in India about 11 years ago in a dunger of a Corolla taxi at up to 160 , passing 4 rollovers in the 130 or so Km. Slow down driver .

Also seat belts are not compulsory in Mysore so they take them out. Retrning in a Hotel Astra from Mysore to Bangalore at night passing trucks with trucks coming, unlit oxcart turning in front, overtaking moves around trucks with trucks coming and the rest of the tailback filling the space. I don't EVER want to do that again.
Regards Philip A

behind a paywall

Garden Grove truck driver sacked over terrifying overtaking near-miss, sparking war of words with transport union

A TRUCK driver has been sacked over a terrifying near-miss overtaking manoeuvre captured on dash-cam — but the Transport Workers Union says it should be the company in the firing line.

Vision of the incident, which was shared on Facebook earlier this month, showed one truck overtaking another near Port Augusta, forcing the driver in the oncoming lane off the road to avoid a collision.


The truck in question was branded Garden Grove and the company stood the driver down on full pay pending the outcome of an investigation.
On Monday, it was confirmed the driver had been sacked.
“Garden Grove Haulage reacted as soon as it was made aware of the very near-miss through social media,” the company posted on Facebook.
“We spoke immediately with the truck driver and then ‘stood him down’ on pay while we conducted a full investigation.
“The findings of our investigation were that the actions of the truck driver involved warranted dismissal, and therefore, his employment with Garden Grove Haulage was terminated on 9th June 2017.”
The incident has sparked a war of words between the union, representing transport workers, and the South Australian Road Transport Association (SARTA), which represents transport operators.
Ian Smith, secretary of the SA/NT branch of the TWU, said the incident reflects concerning workplace conditions.
“The culture at the company is one of disregard for safety: drivers are forced to work long hours because of unrealistic schedules and the payment system where drivers are paid per kilometre incentivises drivers being pushed to the limit,” he said.
“The company covers up this culture — by paying drivers for work on Saturdays they did not do when they are forced to work up to 17 hours a day during the week.”
Mr Smith said the practice of “pushing drivers to the limit” has seen at least nine experienced drivers leave in the past few months.
Speaking on behalf of Garden Grove, SARTA’s executive officer, Steve Shearer, said the long-distance driving industrial award requires truck drivers be paid for time spent driving and unloading or loading trucks.
He said the award does not recognise time spent waiting in the truck as work and therefore employees are not legally entitled to be paid, but said Garden Grove may choose to compensate employees for their waiting time and that is why drivers could be paid for more than the maximum-allowed 14 hours per day.
Mr Shearer said if the union was concerned about the safety of drivers, their issues should be raised at a regular meeting aimed at identifying issues on the road.
“For 21 years I have chaired monthly meetings of the South Australian Law Enforcement Liasion Group, which is (made up of) SARTA, the South Australian Police, the Department of Transport, SafeWork SA and, when they bother to show up, the Transport Workers’ Union,” he said.
“If the union believes it actually has some substantive allegations to back up its claims about Garden Grove, then you’ve got to ask the question about why they aren’t bothering to attend the meetings and make that information available to police.”
Responding to Mr Shearer, Mr Smith said the liaison group was established by SARTA and has no authority beyond an advisory group.
“It’s not an official body that has any rights or power to make decisions for the industry,” he said.
“SARTA invites us and we attend from time to time, but it’s their group.”
Garden Grove was contacted by The Advertiser but did not wish to make any further comment.

Thanks for the heads up Eevo.
Nothing changes and we would be naive to think it would over this incident.
The Truckie lost his job (Not his licence) and everyone else is just playing the Blame Game.