When the wheels of government bureaucracy fail to turn promptly enough to address a clear road safety issue, the sad fact is that people can die as a result.
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The ACT coronial findings from the Blake Corney case, released this week, bear testimony to that tragic fact.
ACT Chief Coroner Lorraine Walker fought back tears this week to detail her findings on the July 2018 death of four-year-old Blake, who was killed instantly when a medium-rigid tipper slammed into the back of the Corney family's Ford Territory, while Blake's father sat waiting for the lights to change.
The negligence of the driver involved in the incident has already been acknowledged and punishment meted out through the judicial process.
But what has not been addressed - and is beyond the remit of the Coroner - is the underlying inadequacy of Australian Design Rule safety regulation applied to heavy vehicles.
Mandating ADRs, as they are colloquially known, is a federal government responsibility. Only last week, after almost a decade of bureaucracy dragging its heels, autonomous emergency braking (AEB) technology was finally mandated for all new light vehicles sold in Australia by March 2023.
It was, to anyone who has followed this discussion, a pathetically slow reaction after the market has already moved on the issue.
The far bigger safety issue is trucks.
In its submission to Treasury in 2019, the Trucking Industry Council (TIC) reported that the average age of the Australian truck was 14.8 years. Almost 42 per cent of trucks on Australian roads were manufactured before 2003. Nearly 120,000 trucks rolling around our roads were built before 1996.
First things first: make every heavy vehicle driver accountable. It's not bias or prejudice, it's simply common sense.
Trucks hang around a lot longer than cars. They are purpose engineered for longevity and productivity. At a few hundred-thousand kilometres, they are barely run in. And old diesel trucks are heavy emitters, too.
The council's members clearly are in the business of selling new trucks and the major heavy haulage companies can afford to change over regularly to the latest equipment. But for thousands of small businesses, that cost is prohibitive. So they naturally hang onto the old trucks they have.
Retrofitting technology like stability control, automatic braking and anti-lock braking into old trucks just doesn't work. Like emissions controls, safety tech has to be embedded at the manufacturer level to be properly tested, proven and certified.
So we are left with the inescapable issue of thousands of heavy laden old trucks on our roads, providing a valuable service and yet undeniably - particularly in the hands of inexperienced drivers, or when confronted with added complexities such as inconsiderate other drivers, poor roads and work-related pressures such as tight delivery schedules - presenting a disproportionate level of risk to all other road users.
So what can be done right now to address the issue?
First things first: make every heavy vehicle driver accountable. It's not bias or prejudice, it's simply common sense.
Some technology can be retro-fitted and is already proven and in operation, with monitors and alarms ready available. Canberra's Seeing Machines watches over truck drivers throughout the world.
Mandate and subsidise it, then when every heavy vehicle goes over the pits for registration, the anti-fatigue and distraction tech gets checked off, just like the brakes and suspension.
It's the first step, but an important one.
Let's call it Blake's legacy.
