Super Quads – How many is too many?

BIRDS EYE VIEW by Carol Messenger

SUPER QUADS

– How many is too many?

Ihave previously discussed the issues with the Quads, (or Super Quads as they are sometimes known) that are so prevalent in numbers on the Great Northern Highway between Newman and Port Hedland.

These great huge lumbering beasts are 60 metres long with a gross weight of up to 200 Tonne and are used to cart the ore from the mines around the Newman region to the Port Hedland Port. heading in the same direction as me. I only counted the ore Quads and did not include any of the fuel tankers triples or other semi's that we normally share the road with.

I kept a tally system on my con note book cover, marking it off every time one passed me. I started getting alarmed at how fast my tally was rising, every few minutes there would be another one, and sometimes they were in a convoy of two or three or more.

So before I give you the number why don't you take a guess? How many of these monsters do you think would be travelling on that road between Newman and Port Hedland in a continuous stream? Forty, fifty, sixty, seventy perhaps?

Let me tell you, that on a Sunday afternoon on that approximately 450 kms stretch of road that is a four and a half hour trip I passed 92 of these 'trailers of terror'

Whilst many of the Quad drivers are great and can keep the trailers tracking true, too many of them I have found, have the back trailer wagging like an excited dog when his master returns home. The flick on that back trailer sends it whipping side to side from the edge of the road to well out over the centre line.

A recent ‘hotshot’ north has me really concerned that the number of these vehicles on this stretch of Great Northern Highway seems to be increasing exponentially.

Heading up on a Saturday afternoon earlier this year, I was amazed at the continual stream that I was passing so coming back the next day I thought that, just out of interest, I would count them.

In counting I ‘only’ counted the number coming towards me, this did ‘not’ include any that were parked up, nor the ones