SLASHING speed limits, mandatory truck stops and compulsory inspections to improve safety on the South Eastern Freeway should be acted on immediately, a road-crash victim’s family says.

The proposals are among sweeping changes recommended by Deputy State Coroner Anthony Schapel, who on Monday released comprehensive findings into the deaths of truck drivers James Venning, 41, and John Posnakidis, 42.

Mr Schapel has further suggested truck drivers who do not use a low gear during their descent be jailed and disqualified from driving, rather than fined, and a mandatory stopping area between the Heysen Tunnels and the second arrester bed be considered.

Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan told The Advertiser that “the recommendations we are able to implement, we will do so as quickly as possible”.

Among Mr Schapel’s 17 recommendations are:

REDUCTION of the speed limit for heavy vehicles from 60km/h to 40km/h, and from 90km/h to 80km/h for all other vehicles.

INVESTIGATION of the feasibility of installing technology capable of detecting the speeds of heavy vehicles and directing drivers to use an arrester bed when they are excessive.

REQUIRE all truck drivers using the freeway for the first time to be supervised by a trained instructor and during testing before becoming eligible for a heavy-vehicle licence.

Mr Venning died when he lost control of his semi-trailer at more than 145km/h and it rolled at the bottom of the freeway in January last year.

Mr Posnakidis, 42, died when he was hit by an out-of-control truck as he sat at a bus stop on the South Eastern Freeway in October, 2010.

media_camera Victorian truck driver Daniel James Walsh received a suspended sentence. Picture: Greg Higgs

In a statement released to The Advertiser, Mr Posnakidis’ family urges Mr Mullighan to “take the recommendations seriously and to act in accordance with them”.

“Sending a clear message by toughening the law to deter heavy vehicle users from driving dangerously and encouraging them to use safety ramps is commendable,” it says.

“However, as a family we would prefer that the risk to other drivers is minimised — in fact, we would prefer there be no safety risk — through better and compulsory training, proper vehicle maintenance and mandatory and regular vehicle inspections, and greater investment in road engineering to prevent road crashes.

“We, John’s family, do not want this to happen again.”

Truck crash caught on camera Footage released by the SA Coroner’s Court of a semi-trailer that overturned in January, killing the driver.

South Eastern Freeway crash survivor Louise Compton said that truck drivers needed to know they could use the arrester beds if they encountered trouble. “Truck drivers themselves need to be aware about how to drive that stretch of road,” she said.

The recommendation for a mandatory stopping area backs up calls by the RAA for a similar lane for trucks at the top of the South Eastern Freeway. In Western Australia, a mandatory stopping lane for heavy vehicles was introduced in 1995 after one woman was killed and 11 people were injured by an out-of-control truck. There have been no fatalities or serious crashes since it was established.

Mr Mullighan is considering the mandatory lanes and yesterday said he “broadly supported” the Coroner’s findings.

“We are already a fair distance through implementing many of the recommendations which he (made yesterday) and we will continue to implement those measures which we know will provide a demonstrable benefit to road safety and reduce the risk of these accidents happening in the first place,” he said.

Since August, the State Government has implemented various changes to the rules for drivers on the freeway including dropping the limit for heavy vehicles to 60km/h and from 100km/h to 90km/h for light vehicles.

The Government has also agreed to pay to remove stricken trucks that use the safety beds rather than the cost be imposed on the driver or his employer.

An inquest into the deaths of Thomas Spiess, 56, and Jacqueline Byrne, 41, who were killed in a horrific smash when a sewage truck careened into three cars at traffic lights in August last year, is continuing.

South-Eastern Freeway Coronial inquests

CASE 1

media_camera John 'Yani' Posnakidis, who was killed by a truck on the South-Eastern Freeway while standing in a bus shelter on October 12, 2010.

JOHN POSNAKIDIS

Mr Posnakidis, 42, died when he was hit by an out-of-control truck as he sat at a bus stop on the South-Eastern Freeway, on October 12, 2010.

He had broken down the previous day and decided to spend the night in his cabin and call for assistance in the morning.

Mr Posnakidis got out of his truck to have a cigarette when he was struck by a semi-trailer driven by an inexperienced truckie.

Victorian man Daniel Walsh pleaded guilty to two aggravated counts of driving without due care, as well as multiple breaches of trucking industry regulations.

He was sentenced to five months’ jail — suspended on condition of a two-year, $200 good behaviour bond — disqualified from driving for two years and fined $2500 for regulatory breaches.

Another man, who was changing a tyre on his wife’s car, sustained severe injuries in the crash as he tried to jump out of the way of the semi-trailer.

CASE 2

JAMES VENNING

Mr Venning, 41, died when the truck he was driving rolled and crashed into the wall of a retirement village on Cross Rd, Myrtle Bank, at the bottom of the South-Eastern Freeway on January 18, 2014.

The inquest heard Mr Venning’s semi-trailer was travelling more than 145km/h when the crash happened.

He died from blunt head trauma. No one else was injured in the crash.

The inquest heard Mr Venning had chosen to travel to Virginia via the South-Eastern Freeway and through Adelaide because of bushfires in the Riverland.

The inquest found that the prime mover was roadworthy, had a faultless gearbox and had adequate brakes but that the brakes of the semi-trailer were incapable of controlling its speed during its descent on the freeway.

CASE 3

media_camera Hallett Cove man Tom Spiess. media_camera Jacqui Byrne.

THOMAS SPIESS AND JACQUELINE BYRNE

Mr Spiess, 56, and Ms Byrne, 41, died as a result of injuries they sustained in an horrific road crash at the base of the South- Eastern Freeway on August 18, 2014.

Truck driver Darren Hicks and another motorist, Louise Compton, both suffered serious injuries in the crash.

SA Police experts told the inquest that the Transpacific truck, believed to be fully laden with 8000 litres of sewage, increased in speed from 77km/h to 151.9km/h as it travelled “out of control, lurching to the left” down the freeway.

They said CCTV footage of the minutes leading up to the crash showed the truck travelling the final 190m of the freeway before the Cross Rd intersection in just 4.5 seconds.

An inquest, which is continuing, has heard that the fully-laden sewage truck was travelling at more than 150km/h when it careered through the intersection.

Truckies back penalty hits

THE state’s peak trucking industry has thrown its weight behind the bulk of the Deputy Coroner coroner Anthony Schapel South Eastern Freeway safety recommendations - although it says some changes may be too difficult to implement.

South Australian Road Transport Association executive director Steve Shearer said beefing up penalties for drivers who flout safety laws along the Freeway needed to be considered carefully. “So long as we safeguard the rights of individuals and don’t unfairly treat people, we have always supported, as an industry, tough penalties for people who willingly and negligently drive dangerously,” he said.

He supported the “thrust” of the recommendations, although there would be some practical problems enforcing all drivers, including those from interstate or rural areas, to ensure their first descent was supervised.

“It’s pretty easy after an incident to find out it was somebody’s first run, beforehand you probably would not know,” he said. “And I think we all recognise 638,000 trucks a year (make the descent into Adelaide) and a handful run into grief.

“What we are trying to do is the needle in the haystack routine of preventing that tiny percentage because the consequences can be catastrophic.”

He said he supported creating a third arrester bed — which the state government has been investigating since late last year — as long as the placement was effective.