The downhill run on Mt Ousley is one of the trickiest in the country for heavy vehicles.
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And there’s no way to avoid it as that is the only route in and out of Wollongong and Port Kembla for big trucks.
That’s according to truckie Pat Armstrong, who drives semi-trailers up and down the road every working day.
Mr Armstrong said he got his truck driver’s licence in 1974 and has been driving trucks “on and off since then”.
Most of that time he’s been behind the wheel of semi-trailers and he reckoned he’d driven up and down Mt Ousley at least 30,000 times.
So he’s well qualified to join forces with Roads and Maritime Services to make a video showing how challenging the descent can be.
“It’s one of the most challenging because of what’s on that mountain,” Mr Armstrong said.
“There are different speed limits, there are cars and trucks and you’ve got to interact with them, and there’s both of those merges.
"It’s one of the most challenging because of what’s on that mountain."
“Then there’s the grades and the curves after that flat spot in the middle.”
He said the Picton Road merge lane at the top of the mountain can be difficult because of cars merging across the slow lane for trucks.
Traffic has to merge again halfway down, where three lanes become two.
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“People coming down that mountain who haven’t done it before, they don’t realise there’s a merge there,” Mr Armstrong said.
When he’s behind the wheel on that downhill run, Mr Armstrong said he is always looking at what’s going on around him – which includes cars zipping in and out of the lane or overtaking.
“I think road users are pretty unaware of the challenges that truck drivers have got,” he said.
“They don’t understand when you’re slowing down that it takes a truck a lot longer to slow down than a car.
“A car can slow down in a matter of metres, a truck sometimes can take 100 metres or even 200 metres.”
He also felt the public was quick to judge all truckies for the mistakes of a few.
“I think that’s been the attitude of everyone,” he said.
“If one truck driver does the wrong thing, then they’re all the same. But that’s not the case – I work for a responsible company and we take safety seriously.”