Logging trucks are to be allowed to carry slightly longer and significantly lower loads, to reduce rollover crashes which have plagued the industry for years, Acting Transport Minister Judith Tizard said today.
Ms Tizard said an independent report on road trials concluded that rollover crashes involving log trucks could be reduced by up to 40 percent if all high-loaded log trucks were allowed to operate with the lower and longer loads.
“New Zealand motorists will be safer with the lower logging trucks on the road. Computer modeling, two separate on-road trials and a series of handling tests of the vehicles all found major improvements in vehicle stability as a result of the re-configured loads.
"Once you've actually seen a truck with the lower load it becomes very obvious why they are safer. We're talking about vehicles with a much lower centre of gravity, which are much more stable and much less likely to roll over. That's good for road safety.”
On average it takes about a half second longer to overtake a 22 metre logging truck, a drawback that Ms Tizard said was far outweighed by the safety benefits of the lower and more stable loads.
The longer and lower logging trucks will operate on the country's roads from June 20, when the Land Transport Safety Authority (LTSA) will issue a gazette notice approving their operation. All trucks operating at 22 metres will display extra lights, signs and flags, including high visibility panels on the rear of the load at night.
The reconfigured vehicles will have their trailer load heights dropped from 3.8 metres to between 2.0 and 2.6 metres on average, with a maximum height of 3.2 metres. The height reduction is achieved by splitting one packet of logs into two smaller packets loaded end-to-end, resulting in up to a two metre increase in overall vehicle length (to 22 metres) with no increase in weight.

For further technical information see the LTSA website, www.ltsa.govt.nz.