I didn't want to steal Dingo's thread at this time,
http://www.myswag.org/index.php?topic=34304.0But it prompted me to put this one out there as well.
That is a reminder for everyone to take care during the madness of the holiday period, but also when everyone goes back to work.
In Gippsland this year between the middle of January and end of March there were 17 truck crashes, 15 of these involved other cars. The majority of these were the cars "being in places they weren't meant to be" (ie wrong side of the road or similar).
17 crashes in this 10 week period was about 50% higher then for the rest of the year, although in about October we had 4 fatalities in 3 weeks, all with cars on the wrong side of the road.
Most of these crashes could be generalized as caused by either fatigue/inattention or distraction (phones?). How else do you explain how people can't see a truck.
One truck driver involved in a double fatality stated that he could see the car driver using a GPS (or similar), then turned to face the on coming truck....then just pulled straight out of the T intersection.
These figures don't include similar crashes that trucks aren't involved in, but my day job revolves around the heavy vehicle side of things, hence my concentration on them.
Due to this high incidence of crashes, myself and a few other road safety advocates from the transport industry and local shire put our heads together to try to do something.
We have no budget (no official backing from our various government employers), and very little knowledge in the publicity department.....but we are having a go anyway.
We are trying to get as many heavy vehicles to operate for this 10 week period with their headlights on. This is for 3 main reasons.
* Hopefully other road users have a better chance of seeing them.
* It highlights the issue to the truck driver that it is a high risk period and for him/her to consciously turn their lights on they are hopefully making the decision to drive more defensively as well.
* With hopefully a high proportion of trucks operating with headlights on throughout Gippsland the other road users will (with a bit of prompting from local radio, print and TV news media) also be prompted to drive more defensively.
We can only try.
You can check out the basis of what we are doing here
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Truckies-Lighting-Up-For-Safety/547266378701468?fref=ts (hopefully the link works
).
And if anyone a bit more internet savvy than me has any advice or suggestions please throw them my way.
Most importantly, stay alert over the festive season......and when everyone goes back to work
Peter
