Gilgandra Shire Council’s David Neeves has written to Gilgandra Police station pointing to concerns around the police response to a truck accident on Friday 19 January 2024. 

That morning, a cattle truck travelling along the Hargraves Lane detour rolled its trailer resulting in long delays. 

At the time, the Newell highway traffic was diverted via Hargraves Lane.

Then on January 17 Gilgandra had a heavy rain shower and this increased traffic on the intersection of the detour and the Oxley Highway causing a large amount of damage to the road surface including large holes which appear to have contributed to the crash. 

There were no injuries as a result of the accident.

Traffic was diverted via various detours for a few hours. 

The trailer was recovered by local emergency services, restoring the route, while a traffic director was stationed at the corner of Hargraves Lane and the Oxley Highway for the days following the crash. 

David Neeves. Image: GSC

However, Mr Neeves said that there was “significant gap in the overall command of the scene” and felt that the police should have taken up this responsibility but didn’t. 

SES local commander Geoffrey Kiehne also agreed there was a problem with command of the scene. 

Mr Neeves said he has since met the police to discuss why they “didn’t take charge of the site, but were more concerned with the traffic and removing the truck off the road”. 

Police subsequently reported that they knew it was their responsibility to take command of the scene. 

Police advised they will raise the issue internally to the officer in charge of highway police for the region in relation to highway police officers’ responsibilities during incidents.