Truckie’s haul well over limit
A TRUCKIE who overloaded his prime mover instead of lightening the back-end load claimed he felt safer while driving on a dirt road.
Jeffery James Spinks, 45, was hauling gypsum from a Winton mine to a drop extraction site 200km away on October 29, 2019.
The Townsv ville Magistrates Court heard inspectors intercepted Spinks (pictured) driving his road train towing four semi- trailers and weighed the vehicle.
It was determined that Spinks had two severe risk breaches, indicating he had overloaded by more than 120 per cent.
Prosecutor for Transport and Main Roads Peter Rainbird said the first truck bucket was overloaded by three tonnes, weighing in at six tonnes.
“Mr Spinks indicated to inspectors he had loaded the containers himself and he didn’t have any way of checking the weight before driving,” Mr Rainbird said.
“He indicated that he had deliberately put a little bit more extra weight on the dry axle due to the overall weight of the load; he felt like he needed extra weight on that axle or else the tyres might end up losing traction.”
Spinks pleaded guilty to six counts of fail to comply with mass requirements applying to heavy vehicle or components.
Defence barrister Rowan Pack said his client attributed some of the extra weight to the weather conditions, being anxious to load quickly as it had been raining and believing the gypsum got damp, which may have added to the weight.
Magistrate Ross Mack told Spinks overloading trucks depreciated the road a lot faster and caused potholes.
Spinks was fined $4000 and ordered to pay $97 in court costs.
Convictions were recorded.
A CAMPAIGN for a new “super state” comprising parts of regional Victoria and NSW begins this week.
Victorian Liberal Democrats MP Tim Quilty first proposed the move — dubbed “rexit”, short for “regional exit” — in his maiden speech to parliament in 2018, when he called for country Victoria and NSW to split from their capitals and join forces.
The Parliamentary Budget Office published the radical proposal in December last year after Mr Quilty requested “independent advice” about the economic character of a new state.
Under the proposal, major Victorian regional centres such as Ballarat, Bendigo, Mildura, Wodonga and Shepparton would join the new jurisdiction, alongside NSW hubs Wagga Wagga, Albury, Orange, Bathurst and Griffith.
Mr Quilty said the “rexit” campaign would start this week when he presented his “vision for a new state” to a forum in the border town of Wodonga.
He will host similar events in Rutherglen on March 24 and Tallangatta on April 8.
Mr Quilty said regional centres had been “overlooked by city-focused governments”.
“The COVID pandemic has shone a very bright and very unfavourable light on our treatment,” he said.
“All of these locations are border regions, a long way from Dan Andrews’ focus on Melbourne, and they have all been subject to the destruction of border closures, snap lockdowns and unnecessary COVID restrictions.
“The Premier conceded it was easier to lock down the whole state rather than just Melbourne, and we are paying a heavy price for his lazy shortcuts. I hope my efforts to demonstrate the benefits of forming our own state will be complemented by Mr Andrews’ outstanding work in alienating and insulting 1.6 million regional Victorians.”
Mr Quilty said he had two models for the proposed new state, the first being northern regional Victoria combined with southern regional NSW.
The second was for greater Melbourne and Geelong to form one state, and the greater Sydney region to be its own jurisdiction while the rest of regional Victoria and NSW formed “one big super state”.
The Victorian government denied it ignored regional needs when formulating COVID-19 restrictions.
“We have followed the advice of the chief health officer every step of the way,” a spokeswoman said.
“We know this has had a big impact on regional communities and businesses, which is why we’re delivering an unprecedented amount of support, most recently the $143m circuit-breaker support package.”
ARBIL: On the last night of his tour of Iraq, Pope Francis met the father of Alan Kurdi, the drowned Syrian Kurdish toddler who became a symbol of the plight of migrants.
The photos of Alan’s tiny body, washed up on a Turkish beach in 2015, shocked the world and brought renewed attention to the deadly sea route many migrants take to try to reach the West.
After holding his last public event on Sunday, the Pope met Alan’s father Abdullah in Arbil, the capital of Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region.
“The Pope spoke for a long time with Abdullah Kurdi, and was able to hear the pain of a father who has lost his family,” the Vatican said.
The Kurdis, from Syria, were trying to get to Canada when three-year-old Alan drowned with his brother Galip and mother Rehanna. The only survivor was Abdullah, who resettled in Iraq.