BY LAUREN FREEMANTLE

After January’s three-vehicle crash at Cooranbong which claimed the life of a truck driver and sparked a bushfire, NSW police have launched the biggest crackdown on trucking operations ever seen in Australia.

Operation Rolling Thunder saw drivers pulled over en-mass to be drug and alcohol tested.

More than 350 police sprung into action at dawn to conduct heavy vehicle inspections at various locations across NSW, including on the Newell, Princes, Hume and Pacific Highways.

Trucks crossing over NSW borders were also stopped as police joined forces with Queensland, Victorian, South Australian and ACT units.

By Thursday afternoon, 300 defect notices were issued and 20 drivers tested positive for narcotics.

Rolling Thunder was initiated as a direct response to a horrific two-day period from Monday 15th to Tuesday 16th January, in which five people died in three unrelated trucking accidents.



The inferno at Cooranbong, Lake Macquarie on January 14. Image: Daily Mail.