Trucking industry leader speaks out after two fatal crashes in the Shire of Plantagenet in the past month

Shire of Plantagenet president and trucking industry leader Chris Pavlovich has spoken out in the wake of a tragic festive period on Great Southern roads. There have been two fatal crashes in the Shire of Plantagenet in the past month. A 17-year-old girl was killed on a family holiday on Albany Highway near Mt Barker on January 10, after a 75-year-old man was killed on Albany Highway in Narrikup on December 22. Mr Pavlovich, who owns Southern Haulage, said there had been an obvious spike in traffic through Mt Barker over the holidays. “The tourist and non-local traffic has certainly increased,” Mr Pavlovich said. “There has been a 30 per cent increase on traditional traffic flows on Albany Highway through the town of Mt Barker over the summer months. “The roads are just so busy. A lot of people are not used to our areas or roads, and that adds to the risk. “On a narrow, windy road you are very alert but on a big wide road like Albany Highway, everyone relaxes a bit.” Figures from traffic counters on Albany Highway in Mt Barker show a jump from about 5000 vehicles at peak times to more than 7000 this summer. Mr Pavlovich said his trucking company used satellite tracking devices in its trucks to reduce the risk of fatigue. “The satellite tracking shows where each truck is at any point in time, how long it idles, and when it leaves and returns to the yard. Everyone is fully compliant then — the employer and employee. We also have dash cams as a standard fitment in our trucks.,” he said. He said he believed the next piece of trucking technology rolled out in the Great Southern would be retina testing devices that measured when a driver blinked. Mr Pavlovich said that technology was already used by mining companies and was being looked at by the local transport industry. “The main thing for the industry, myself included, is that all drivers get home to their wives and children at the end of the day — everyone on the roads for that matter,” Mr Pavlovich said.