Authorities have slapped defect notices on the entire contents of a Fairy Meadow trucking yard after two fatal accidents brought a wave of scrutiny to the company’s door.
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All 16 trucks at Barnetts Couriers’s Montague Street depot were issued defect notices on Friday following a joint blitz by NSW Police and RMS officials.
The infringements included two major defects for a seatbelt offence and malfunctioning lights, a police spokesman said. Other trucks showed signs of previous collision damage, balding tyres and broken seats.
All but one of the vehicles were allowed back on the road on Friday, with Barnetts given a grace period in which to fix the defects.
The raid came four days after a truck connected to Barnetts Couriers was involved in a crash that killed a 67-year-old Bega woman in Barden Ridge.
This was the second fatality involving the company in the past four years.
In 2012 truck driver Kaine Daniel Barnett, Bob Barnett’s grandson, killed university student Sarah Frazer and tow-truck driver Geoff Clarke in a crash on the Hume Highway.
“Given that there’s been two fatalities, we obviously want to make sure the company’s operating safely,” the police spokesman said. “And there’s been other issues – safety issues, management procedures and loading procedures.”
Police seized records from the depot to aid an ongoing investigation.
The raid occurred a day after Barnetts reached a confidential settlement in the Supreme Court over a payroll tax dispute.
Rob Pirc, Transport Workers Union NSW South Coast and Southern Secretary said workers had long raised concerns about the company’s safety practices.
“It comes as no surprise that every single Barnett’s truck the authorities looked at today had some form of defect,” he said.
“We’ve been highlighting serious problems at this company for many years and we welcome that the authorities have seized the company’s records for a full and thorough investigation. If breaches of logbooks are found let’s hope that management are held to account.”
The union received a photo, about two years ago, showing a Barnetts truck propped up on a forklift while a man worked beneath it.
Business founder Bob Barnett was on site Friday morning despite his obvious poor health.
He said the cause of Monday’s crash was unknown, but truck driver fatigue could not have been a factor.
“This is how stupid they [the authorities] are, they’re looking at fatigue on Monday morning at three o’clock when he’s just started,” he said. “[The driver] hasn’t worked for two days.”
