Safety sensors to be placed in trucks – eight years after cyclist’s death

Front-end sensors to enable truck drivers to detect cyclists, pedestrians and small cars could be in place from next year, the federal government says.

That will be seven years after a Queensland coroner investigating the death of cyclist Rebekka Meyer – struck by a truck in South Brisbane in 2014 – recommended the sensors be made mandatory.

The truck that hit and killed 22-year-old Danish cyclist Rebekka Meyer in September, 2014.Credit: Tony Moore

“The department is preparing a package of reforms for safer freight vehicles that includes the fitting of blind-spot information systems and additional mirrors – or cameras – to help truck drivers see pedestrians and other road users in front or beside their vehicle,” a spokeswoman for Infrastructure and Transport Minister Catherine King said.

The package of safety reforms for heavy vehicles could be in place next year, the spokeswoman said.

“The department is finalising advice and recommendations for the package of safety technologies to be mandated through the National Road Vehicle Standards Act.

“Should the minister agree to the recommendations, the package could be expected to come into effect in 2023.”

The scene on Bowen Bridge Road on June 30, 2020, when cyclist and nurse Carolyn Lister was killed.Credit: Seven Network

A second Queensland cyclist, Carolyn Lister, was crushed by a truck while waiting at traffic lights on Bowen Bridge Road beside the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in June 2020.

However, no changes have been made to the intersection with O’Connell Terrace, despite news that a major cancer centre will be built directly adjacent.

Cyclists, health workers and pedestrians all regard the narrow strip of concrete at the intersection as dangerous. The situation will intensify when the new cancer centre is built in 2024.

Lister’s husband, John, said the news was “amazing, simply amazing”.

RBWH theatre nurse and cyclist Carolyn Lister with husband John against a backdrop of Mount Everest in Nepal.

“It means so much to me. To lessen accidents occurring like the one that happened to my late wife just means so much to me,” he said.

“It is like Christmas has come early for so many people because this decision is quite literally life changing.”

Space for Cycling spokesman Chris Cox also welcomed the federal government’s move to add sensors and extra mirrors to trucks, despite the seven-year delay.

“I think that is very good news,” Cox said. “If we wanted to be a little bit negative, we would say this was the recommendation from the coroner seven years ago, and it would have been good to have seen some action earlier.”

Cox said cycling groups had been told it could take 15 years to retrofit all trucks.

“So now we are seven years behind.”

In December 2015, Queensland Coroner Christine Clements recommended warning sensors be placed in heavy vehicles after the coronial inquiry into Meyer’s death.

She is still considering whether to hold a coronial inquiry into the 2020 death of Lister, a nurse educator and keen cyclist and hiker.

Lister’s husband said the police investigations showed a person “had to be two to three metres in front of the truck for any visibility at all”.

“She was just in front, signalled, but the driver did not see at all.”

The federal government says it will also support a driver training course for truck drivers to make them more aware of cyclists.

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator ensures changes are mandatory after receiving advice from the federal government.

Based in Queensland, it said legislation was updated in February 2021 to “allow a wide range of blind-spot rearview mirrors, cameras and sensors to be fitted.”