Eyre Highway truck crash: Why Neville Mugridge’s widow is calling for change after horror crash claimed three lives

A heartbroken widow has broken her silence to call for trucking industry reforms after a horror crash claimed the life of her husband and two other truckies.

Delphine Mugridge’s husband Neville, 77, was a much-loved truck driver who lost his life in a fiery head-on smash between his truck and another on South Australia’s Eyre Highway on April 4 at the edge of the Nullarbor Plain.

Victorian truck driver Yadwinder Singh Bhatti and another 25-year-old NSW man also died in the crash.

Ms Mugridge has launched a petition calling for truck drivers to have more experience to qualify to pilot big rigs.

‘Ultimately I think the best thing would be a traineeship or an apprenticeship,’ Ms Mugridge told Nine News.

Delphine Mugridge’s husband Neville, 77, was killed two weeks ago in a fiery truck crash on the Eyre Highway

The grieving widow is still struggling to come to terms with what happened to her husband.

‘Sometimes I think, ‘Oh he’s just gonna come home, he’s too good a driver’,’ she said.

‘Then other times I realise he isn’t coming home.’

Ms Mudgidge described her late husband as a loyal father and grandfather and a legend to other truck drivers.

Nicknamed Slim, he left behind 20 children, stepchildren and grandchildren.

‘He was very compassionate,’ his wife recalled.

‘If you had him as a friend you had him for life’.

She launched the petition on Thursday, which had already gathered 3000 signatures the following night.

Ms Mugridge says her husband’s death has shaken the whole trucking industry.

She said the tragedy ‘has brought a huge response from all truck drivers all over Australia outlining the dangerous operation of some drivers on the road’.

‘A huge number of drivers are considering hanging up there boots wondering who will be next to die,’ the petition states.

‘Inexperienced drivers are causing near misses and fatal accidents far too often.’

Ms Mugridge has called for drivers to demonstrate they have held a regular car, light rigid and medium rigid class C licences for a year each before they gain their heavy vehicle licence.

For heavy and multiple combination truck licences, she also wants demonstrated driving experience at lower categories.

Mr Mugridge, who was affectionately known as ‘Slim’ was a legend in the Australian truck driving industry

The fiery crash on a remote part of the Eyre Highway that ended Mr Mugridge’s life along with two others

‘This will ensure that overseas drivers can no longer enter Australia and obtain heavy vehicle licences without following the above guidelines making the roads safer for all travelling up and down the highways,’ she writes.

The petition has the backing of SA Road Transport Association Executive Director Steve Shearer.

‘I think one benefit of the petition might be putting the pressure on governments to get off their butts,’ he told Nine News.

‘What we’ve talked about here in Canberra at the national conference is far more comprehensive and it will be experience based.’

Mr Mugridge’s funeral will be held in Gawler next Friday.