DAVE Patten was decapitated in a collision with a prime mover heading for a Hunter coalmine on a narrow Wybong road two years ago.
Now a NSW government department says it won’t be changing laws for escort vehicles for wide-load vehicles on narrow country roads, despite a coroner a year ago finding it might have saved Mr Patten’s life.
His family wants to know why.
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‘‘My brother was a healthy, hard-working man, and he had a lot of life still to live and enjoy,’’ Michael Patten, of Luskintyre said.
‘‘This crash should not have occurred. It was preventable. We had hoped changes would be made to prevent another family having to endure a tragic loss like ours. But two years after David’s death, nothing has occurred to improve safety for other motorists when wide loads use narrow country roads.’’
Mr Patten died on January 7, 2010, on Wybong Road at Wybong when he failed to pull off the road in time to avoid a collision with a prime mover and trailer heading for Mangoola Mine.
The trailer was carrying a front-end loader.
A coroner in March last year was told the crash occurred at one of the narrowest points on Wybong Road. The prime mover was 3.4metres wide at its broadest. The road was 5.35metres wide. All vehicles were travelling between 80 and 100km/h, and within the speed limit.
Although there was an escort vehicle, it was a ‘‘courtesy’’ by Mangoola owner Xstrata to Wybong residents who strongly opposed the mine, in part because of concerns about the ability of Wybong Road to cope with mine traffic.
The coroner was told the escort vehicle driver had only worked at the mine for three days. It was his first ‘‘solo run’’.
The escort driver and prime mover driver told police the escort vehicle was 250 metres ahead of the prime mover at the time of the crash. A utility driver immediately ahead of Mr Patten’s utility said the escort was ‘‘in front, but not that far out in front’’.
‘‘The load was suddenly there. I only had enough time to get off the road.’’
Investigating police found current laws requiring escort vehicles only for wide loads greater than 3.5metres failed to take into account the impact of wide coalmine vehicles on narrow country roads not built for mine traffic.
Coroner Ron Maiden accepted a police recommendation that escorts should be required for vehicles three metres wide, and wrote to the then Department of Transport in March last year calling for legislation to be changed.
Roads and Maritime Services last week said the recommendation ‘‘would have a significant impact on the daily operations of a number of industry sectors’’.
It was assessing ‘‘critical locations’’ involving ‘‘oversized overmass loads’’, and had started a project to accredit pilot/escort vehicles and ‘‘improve the escort process’’.
Xstrata did not respond to questions.
Mr Patten’s death, and the horrific way he died, ‘‘left my family with a deep feeling of loss and grief’’, Michael Patten said.
The family was critical of the coroner’s finding that the crash was the result of driver error by Dave Patten. No charges were laid against any driver.
‘‘Nobody else has a black mark against their conduct – not the mine, the truck driver, the escort vehicle driver, the government or council. Just my brother who made the error of being on the road when he should have got off, even though there was nowhere to go.’’
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