On Thursday 16 January this year, Warrandyte was plunged into gridlock after a truck rolled over during peak hour. Worse still, a car was trapped underneath the truck with a person still inside it. If this was an isolated incident, we could blame random chance but this is one of four incidents on the same stretch of road during the last two years. On 19 November last year, a beer truck lost control and rolled over, nearly killing two drivers. This followed a similar incident in May last year and one in November 2018.

We believe that the fact that these incidents have all occurred on the same stretch of road warrants an investigation into why they are happening and how they can be prevented. Far too many people have suffered injuries, trauma and financial hardship because of this issue and we fear how long it will be until someone loses their life. Let’s not wait for that to happen. The time to take action is now.

While some of the past incidents have been the fault of the truck driver, we want to affirm our support for the hard working truck drivers out there who keep Australia going. It is sad that the actions of the few impact on the perception of the many good truck drivers out there. We ask that the solution is fair to our truck drivers. Heavy handed solutions are not always the best way to go and an outright truck ban in the area would likely cause more problems than it solves. If an outright ban is to be considered, it should be a last resort.

We do not advocate for or against any particular solution as we are not experts. Instead, we ask that experts are instructed to make decisions that will truly be effective. We ask that decisions are made with the following criteria:

• Improved safety for local residents, road users and pedestrians
• Fairness to our hard working truck drivers
• Minimised environmental impact
• Minimised impact on local character

We also ask that the process involves regular check-ins with the community to receive feedback on plans and to provide progress updates.