An article warning of the risks of improperly constructed or fitted ute trays.
The advice below in the article is certainly concerning.
"However, when the data compared the number of registered vehicles and the average kilometres travelled per vehicle, fatal crash rates for utes and vans were “48 per cent higher per vehicle compared to (passenger cars)”.
The data showed utes and vans were involved in 0.94 fatal crashes per 10,000 registered vehicles compared to 0.63 fatal crashes for passenger cars."
Poor load control would have a huge amount to do with that. How many people with a commercial ute or van do you see who have just thrown all of their stuff in the back with no attempt whatsoever made to secure it?
A genuine ute tray isn’t going to mean a thing if you have a load of unsecured tools that come flying forwards and crash through the back window or onto the roof or through the un-barred cargo space and into your head.
(Sorry, massive daily frustration for me. My husband is shocking for not securing his loads, and I come from a transport family. I was raised to TIE IT DOWN, with a tarp and ropes.)
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I would like to see those figures corrected not only for distance travelled but also for BCA, age and gender. I suspect that one would find that much of the difference is because utes are more often driven by young males who drink. They drive them for work but in some areas they are the recreational vehicles of choice and are fuelled by testosterone and beer as much as premium petrol.
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The ‘study’ sounds like it was more of a marketting exercise.
Did they test the ‘genuine’ products with the same rigour? They talk about how much better the ‘genuine’ products are, but they offer not evidence.
This is definitely not independent or rigourous.
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