Fatal crashes involving heavy vehicles in Australia decreased over the 12 month period ending 
June 2010 where 258 people died from 212 crashes involving heavy trucks or buses. 


Whilst the trend over recent months is downward, the comparable period for the previous year spiked upward by 15%. 
Details of the national articulated / heavy rigid / bus sectors include:
- articulated vehicles were involved in 130 crashes resulting in 160 deaths,
- heavy rigid trucks were involved in 64 crashes resulting in 79 deaths 
- 24 deaths from 21 crashes involving buses.
Fatal crashes involving articulated trucks:
- increased by 15 per cent compared with the corresponding period one year earlier,
- decreased by an average of 4.1 per cent per year over the three years to June 2010.
Fatal crashes involving heavy rigid trucks:
- decreased by 31.2 per cent compared with the corresponding period one year earlier,
- decreased by an average of 3.1 per cent per year over the three years to June 2010.

Source : Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) . For more information, see the BITRE website at www.bitre.gov.au

Australia’s General Insurance has made a first – a $250,000 donation to legal aid for insured flood victims – in Queensland.

Such a financial assist was not made even after the national financial screw-up by HIH, the hail storms in Sydney and Perth nor the Victorian bushfires in 2009.

In a significant gesture, the Insurance Council of Australia said it will provide $250,000 to Queensland Legal Aid to ensure the facility is able to provide appropriate assistance to policyholders affected by the flooding in Queensland.

Rob Whelan, ICA CEO broke the news just after Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten issued a media release trumpeting: “Insurance industry embraces consumer changes on flood insurance.”

Mr Shorten said the 3rd meeting between the Federal Government and the Board of ICA had “resulted in clear wins for consumers and agreement between the Gillard Government and the insurance industry for further discussions on reform of flood related insurance.

“The government agreed with the ICA to develop a mandatory definition of ‘flood’ to be incorporated into the Insurance Contracts Act” and a plain-English, 1-page summary statement to help ensure consumers are aware of what their insurance policies cover.

Mr Shorten’s and the ICA’s statements followed a report by an independent hydrologist panel appointed by ICA on behalf of the industry into the flooding of Toowoomba.

Mr Whelan cautioned that the industry understood that not all policyholders would be covered for the recent floods in Queensland.

If policyholders disagreed with the decision from their insurer they were able to access internal dispute resolution processes.

“The funding from the industry is aimed at providing additional resources for Queensland Legal Aid to assist policyholders,” Rob Whelan said.

source: John Heath – InsuranceNewsAustralia.com

Following an extensive consultation process, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to establish a single national system of laws for heavy vehicles over 4.5 tonnes. These laws will be administered by an independent national regulator – the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR). Located in Brisbane the regulator and laws come into effect from Jan 1, 2013.
Early work on preparing the laws identified more than 360 variations that must be addressed ahead of the implementation of the regulator. The majority of the issues result from differences in state & territory legal & law enforcement systems, even though often the laws lead to similar outcomes.

Source: National Transport Commission (NTC). www. ntc.gov.au

The 13th National Steadfast Convention will be held from 2nd – 5th April, 2011 in Melbourne.

Held at the award winning Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, it is sure to be Steadfast’s biggest and best Convention yet! Situated on the south bank of the Yarra River, the MCEC is the largest, most versatile and greenest convention and exhibition space in the Southern Hemisphere.

Once again, the 2011 program includes an outstanding line up of Australia’s premier speakers and business leaders who will share their experience, knowledge and skills

The flooding of the south-east Queensland city of Ipswich in January this year was partially the result of water releases from the giant Wivenhoe Dam and the incessant heavy rain over 5 days on the district.

However, the performance of the dam during the January flood event is said to be more complex than simply assigning flood causation to “dam releases”.

This is a preliminary finding of the Insurance Council of Australia sponsored Hydrology Panel Report on Ipswich Local Government Area (LGA) in the panel’s multi-part examination of flooding in the Brisbane Catchment Area. It was released today.

The report names 4 factors that affected and exacerbated the nature of the flooding in the Ipswich City Area from January 9 to 14.

The factors were intense rainfall on catchments upstream of Wivenhoe and Somerset dams, a “wet” catchment area that caused large volumes of floodwater into Wivenhoe and Somerset, significant releases from Wivenhoe over January 11 and 12 and outflows from Lockyer Creek and Bremer River.

High tail water levels in the Brisbane River and tributary creeks led to backflows up piped drainage systems that led to waterway floodwaters of low-lying areas normally drained by the system.

This 153-page latest of 4 reports – after earlier Brisbane and Toowoomba hydrology reports – says: “It may be more appropriate to assign flood causation to ‘succeeding storm events over the catchment area of the dam (Wivenhoe), each characterised by exceptionally heavy rainfalls and massive surface runoff volumes’.”

Insurance industry personnel working in the insurance recovery and claim handling in the region will not yet have a definitive conclusion of the flood situation of the region.

source: John Heath – InsuranceNewsAustralia.com