Eagle eye on trucks

By Kelly Yates
CASEY traffic police will use new state-of-the-art truck engine readers to help with heavy vehicle policing efforts on Casey roads.
Senior Constable Allen Inderwisch from the Casey Traffic Management Unit (TMU) said the truck engine readers could be plugged into truck computer ports, enabling police to look at the data in the truck’s engine and computer.
Police will know what speeds the truck has been doing and how long the engine has been running for, says Sen Const Inderwisch.
“We can intercept a truck, plug it all in and see what the truck and the driver have been doing,” he said.
This is the first time the Casey TMU has ever had access to the equipment, with Sen Const Inderwisch and Leading Senior Constable Ken Niven set to patrol the roads every week.
Sen Const Inderwisch said police had nabbed some trucks doing 150km/h through Casey.
“We have two major arterials through Casey with a large amount of heavy vehicles, the Monash Freeway and the South Gippsland Highway,” Sen Const Inderwisch said.
“We want truck drivers and the community to know that if they’re doing the wrong thing, they will get caught.”
Sen Const Inderwisch believes the truck engine readers are an effective tool for police.
“They allow us to monitor the behaviour of drivers and also trucking companies,” he said.
“We’ll know which drivers are breaching the law. The truck companies also need to be aware that they can be held responsible for the truck drivers under the chain of responsibility laws.”
The average downloading time for the truck data can take between 15 minutes and half an hour.
“If there’s no offences detected then it can take 10 minutes,” Sen Const Inderwisch said.
Police are giving truck drivers a wake-up call and urging them to take regular breaks and not break the speed limits.