To protect and serve- Mackay Police

[Peter]

What else could or should the police have done to ensure the safety of road users ? In my view not much by being in the centre of the road a clear message to on coming traffic to move over NOW.

[T1 Terry]

My only compliant would be the speed they were travelling. Wide loads are speed restricted due to the danger they present, they seemed to be travelling quite fast, no hope of stopping if something had gone wrong. If the occupants of the vehicle travelling in the opposite direction were seriously injured or killed just being in the right in your own mind is little consolation, you have still injured or killed people by your own actions. I guess it becomes a compounding thing, the uniform and vehicle give the officer a feeling of superiority, the truck driver then gets the same felling as he is being escorted by the law so that makes them above the rules of the road. They are very long distances between pick up and drop off the temptation to get it over and done with as soon as possible

T1 Terry

[RussellB[SA]]

Terry you win the prize. It was the speed that concerned us.

Yes their safety vehicles alerted us and we slowed down and when possible pulled over.

[Chuck]

A few days ago as we approached the highway to Geraldton from the Niagara Dam free camp area we heard an escort vehicle on the UHF warning oncoming traffic of a wide load approaching them - forget the width mentioned. As we neared the the T junction with the highway the first escort van passed across in front of us so we stopped to wait for the load to pass. There were 2 Police escorts, both with their lights flashing & but sitting in the left hand lane.....

After the load had passed we tucked in behind them, not being in a hurry we thought - but they were sitting on 95 kph - & we noticed that as they neared each bend & crest both Police vehicles moved across the centre line. I assumed from that manoeuvre they were positioning themselves so that oncoming vehicles would not only have a visual fix on them but it also indicated the width of the oncoming wide load.

Even the oncoming road trains were well off the bitumen.

Wide Load Niagra Dam - Mullewa WA 029.jpg

In this instance the lead escort was about 1klm ahead of the first Police vehicle with the second Police vehicle a good 500m behind the first & 500m in front of the wide load. So plenty of visual warning even if you didn't have a UHF on 40 - which we do, in the country but not in the bigger towns.

[marashkar]

Ok been lurking for a while but this has stirred me up enough to post. I live out where that road goes to and from. And have travelled that road for the last 25 years on a weekly basis. Wide loads are a fact of life for us. If a UHF radio was on ch 40 you would have an idea that they were coming.you can hear them talking from a long way away. This channel 20 or 18 rot has to stop. We are playing in there sandpit so I think we have to play with their toys ie ch 40 .there are at least 2 people a year killed by ignoring police directives and getting cleaned up by the wide load. If it was a big truck and body you would really have something to worry about as the police would have forced you off the road . ( body over 12 m wide) you cannot remain on the road. Any one traveling in central qld get or have a UHF radio on channel 40 and when you see a pilot vehicle talk to them they will tell you what they have got and you can start making plans. If you have not done anything by the time the 1st police car is at you it has the potential to go very wrong very quick. As for the speed the size of these things make it very hard to judge how fast they are going .rant over for now but I urge everyone to be careful around these things as it is all very good being in the right. But If you get hit by one you will lose. Steve

[Dot]

Went to the city today and came across a sight along the lines disgust here only difference was the front escort van had one of those flashing arrow signs directing oncoming traffic over to the shoulder, then there was one fuzzy car in the appropriate lane then came the monster truck with some mine machinery on it and another fuzzy car bringing up the rear. Much better I thought to ones self and not a UHF or CB in site. The trouble with the different radio channels is the yap yap that goes on between people in convoy type of thing, "did you see that bird Fred"? "Oh yes beautiful" blah blah blah not even I want to listen to that stuff let alone have them on ch 40 where a lot of important stuff is heard along with the not so good English and the stories of Fred's wife having it off while he is away etc etc Imagine the trucks if they got all that yap on their radios Might be a thought for those escort people to also have those other channels open for those keeping off 40 for various reasons The roads are equal to every person that pays their rego fees.

[BruceS]

Dot most of the radios these days have 'channel monitoring' in them.
You can be merrily chatting an any other channel & as soon as a monitored channel arcs up your radio will jump to it.
I'm keeping out of this discussion other than to say that you won't catch me in the way if I see ANY wide load signs coming towards me!!
I saw a Kenworth cab sliced open once & that did it for me!!

[Kelvin12]

Steve,

You are 1000% right. Good on you. Also welcome to the forum.

Dirk

[Dot]

So does that mean the truckies also get to hear the cooking & sight seeing chatter? no wonder the language is blue to air on 40 Yeah me too I'm out a here said my bit. Except to say Welcome to Steve aka Marashkar, post about yourself on the introduce yourself thread.

[Craig]

So what was the speed of the wide load? I won't comment on how fast the wide load was travelling because my eyes are due to be speed calibrated and it would only be a guess .

Steve, exactly right.

Dot, I thought you are the queen of banal, so ch40 should be ok for you