Police officers and Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) inspectors swooped on Ron Finemore Transport’s Orange depot on Wednesday.
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Personnel from ‘Operation Ghost’ inspected 51 trucks and trailers and issued eight infringement notices for various offences, with officers finding “ineffective” loading practises during inspection.
Three speed limiters were inspected and found to be compliant. The compliance inspection was in the wake of an accident on June 28, when a B-Double tanker which was hauling ethanol to Queensland crashed on the M1 near Gosford following an alleged brake failure. But in a statement on the company’s website managing director Mark Parry on Wednesday refuted the brake failure allegation, claiming the incident was due to a number of cars braking suddenly.
“The police have confirmed that the driver has been cleared of any wrongdoing,” the statement read.
“Images captured by the driver safety system and witness reports… make it clear that our driver’s response and actions helped avoid a major incident.”
Mr Parry said telemetry showed the truck driver had recently taken an eight-hour break, was not speeding and was not distracted or driving dangerously. NSW Police acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith said the operation served “as a reminder to any trucking company, that our officers will respond to any major incident and go over their trucks, their books and processes with a fine-tooth comb”.