NTARC 2023 Report
FOREWORD
Now in its 12th edition, the Major Crash Investigation Report produced by the National Truck Accident Research Centre (NTARC) provides unique insights into serious heavy vehicle crashes which are critical in raising industry awareness about the causes of these incidents – as well as underpinning solutions.
Wholly funded by NTI, Australia’s leading provider of transport insurance, NTARC is a not-for-profit initiative fueled by NTI’s desire to help reduce serious heavy vehicle crashes and improve safety outcomes for both the industry and the wider community.
Over the past 20 years, NTARC has refined its accident database to present data in a meaningful way to highlight critical areas of interest such as driver deaths as a result of crashes and causes of serious crashes such as fatigue, driver error and other factors.
NTARC doesn’t just share its data, it proactively engages with customers to establish additional detail and helps them implement prevention strategies to reduce future occurrences.
Critically, the data has been used to educate and influence key stakeholders in government into targeted action on heavy vehicle safety, including as evidence of the need to mandate landmark new safety technologies in Australian Design Rules (ADR) such as advanced braking and vehicle stability controls.
NTARC is also beginning to drill down and expand on its data based on industry segment, targeting some of the highest-risk sectors such as tankers, through its “Spilt Milk” program, which has developed a range of tools to reduce the high incidence of tanker rollovers in the dairy industry.
As the saying goes, ‘you can’t manage what you don’t measure’ and NTARC is out there measuring and has, no doubt, already saved many lives with the data and education it has pro-actively shared with industry.
Chris Hogarty
NTI Executive General Manager- Strategy & Supply Chain