Connect Global finedW after Eastern Freeway police tragedy sparked investigation
The company at the centre of the Eastern Freeway tragedy that saw four cops killed has been fined millions. A court heard it ignored warnings and repeatedly failed in drug testing drivers.
NSW
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The company at the centre of the Victorian freeway tragedy that saw four cops killed by a drug-affected driver has been fined more than $100,000, with a court hearing it repeatedly failed in drug testing its drivers.
Three years on from the horror Eastern Freeway killings that shocked the nation, families of the fallen cops this week watched on in a Sydney courtroom, listening to a litany of failures that led to the deaths of their loved ones.
Riverstone-based Connect Logistics and its director Corey Matthews were on Friday fined over a series of breaches uncovered by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.
The case played out in a packed Downing Centre Local Court courtroom, almost a thousand kilometres from where the tragedy took place.
The court heard Connect Logistics — the company the driver worked for when he crashed and killed the officers on the Eastern Freeway — was accused of failing in the fatigue management and drug and alcohol testing of its drivers.
Matthews and the company pleaded guilty to offences under national heavy vehicle legislation regarding serious breaches of the chain of responsibility. Many of the offences were being prosecuted for only the second time in history.
Matthews was fined $22,500 and the company was prohibited from operating in the industry in addition to the record fine handed down by Magistrate John Arms on Friday.
The regulator says the failures exposed the public to a risk of death or serious injury, telling the court that their investigation into the company was sparked as a result of the infamous crash.
The incident remains the worst police tragedy in Australian history.
The court heard when investigators searched the company’s yard, they found timesheets showing many drivers were driving for 18 to 20 hours a day.
Under law, truck drivers cannot drive more than 12 hours in a 24 hour period.
In one shocking incident, the court was told, one driver was so fatigued he ran a red light 19 seconds after it turned red.
The company’s biggest customer, Ingham’s, raised the alarm in the months before the Eastern Freeway tragedy that one driver was working up to 20 hours a day.
The court heard despite management becoming aware of the driver’s hours, he continued to work similar shifts, logging the extra illegal hours in a colleague’s name instead.
“Connect Logistics knew about this,” the regulator’s barrister Jennifer Single SC said.
“More than that, they endorsed it because (the driver) was paid for the work he did in the name of other drivers.”
The driver in the fatal crash, Mohinder Singh, was found to be hindered by fatigue and drugs when he crashed into the officers in April 2020.
Singh, the court heard, was a meth addict and supposed to be medically assessed before he came back to work for the company for a second time, but that never happened.
The regulator said if his drug habit had been picked up, the Eastern Freeway crash may never have happened.
The night before the crash, Singh was reported by two colleagues and an employee of Ingham’s over concerns about his driving.
The day of the crash, the court heard, Singh said he was not fit to drive and reported seeing “witches”.
“(A supervisor) did a search of his car for any voodoo dolls or any signs witchcraft, laid hands over Singh and prayed over him, said he was fit to drive and sent him on his way,” Ms Single SC said
“Very shortly after four police officers died.”
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