Dramatic video of trucks being dangerously overtaken on busy regional West Australian roads has prompted the trucking industry to call for greater measures to encourage road safety.
Dash cam video of a 21-year-old Victorian woman allegedly showing her overtaking a triple road train in an “unsafe and reckless manner” on South Coast Highway near Dalyup earlier this month led to her being charged with reckless driving.
Police said an oncoming road train and another vehicle were required to take evasive action to avoid a collision.
Police said they charged the woman after an investigation into the dash cam video of the incident. (ABC Great Southern: John Dobson)
The incident has prompted a slew of other truck drivers in the Esperance region to post similar footage on social media.Â
Daily occurrence
Truck driver Graeme Brass, who regularly drives along the same route, said the issue had become increasingly common.
His dash cam captured a car trying to overtake his truck a few weeks ago before it veered and stopped by the side of the road, narrowly missing other vehicles travelling in the opposite direction.Â
Truck drivers are urging people to slow down on busy WA roads. (ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas)
Moments before he spoke with the ABC, he said he witnessed another driver attempt the same manoeuvre.
“You see it pretty much every day, at least three, four, five times a day,” Mr Brass said.
“It’s gone to a point where you see it happen and you don’t actually think that’s wrong anymore, you just think, ‘Oh yeah, another one’.”
Caravan risk
Mr Brass described the behaviour as senseless impatience from drivers.Â
“Nine times out of 10, they’ll pass you somewhere stupid, you’ll get over the rise or around the corner, and you’ll have a nice long straight with no traffic, where it could be done quite easily and safely,” he said.
Transport operator Mark Townrow said inexperienced and impatient drivers operating heavier vehicles, such as caravans or campervans, could also increase the risk to people on the road.Â
“We all share the road, and it’s up to all the parties to do that with patience, practical knowledge and understanding of what that involves,” he said.
“You’re sharing the road with vehicles that weigh 50 times what you weigh and do not have the ability to accelerate or stop the same as a car.”
Easter road toll
There have been 53 road deaths in WA in 2026 to date, down from 61 this time last year, according to statistics from the Road Safety Commission, with five people losing their lives over the Easter period alone.
Western Roads Federation chief executive Cam Dumesny said truck drivers were not being consulted enough to improve road safety.Â
Cam Dumesny says truck drivers have an important role to play on the roads that is not acknowledged publicly. (ABC News: Nicolas Perpitch)
He said truck drivers were often the first responders in road accidents, even if they were not involved.Â
“That’s one of the things that gets missed at all of these, when we speak about dangerous driving, is we forget about the consequence and the impact on our drivers,” Mr Dumesny said.
WA Police have an online portal to report dangerous driving incidents and Mr Dumesny said it should be better utilised.
“I think the awareness would be the first start,” he said.