Welcome to COASTTOCOAST100

We have now shifted the road safety spotlight onto ALL road users.  The National Road Safety Hotline proposal is a reporting mechanism to enable ALL road users to report dangerous drivers regardless of WHAT they drive

Click on the “Links” tab to read FleetSafe’s latest issue of “Eye On Safety”

Click to view our ‘Driver Survivor Hotline Paper’

What the Truck Driver said  …..

Good on you lass for having a go.  We professional drivers have had enough and are now starting to question other drivers.  Broadwater should not have happened.  No cars were involved just three trucks and two dead.   Enough is enough blokes – back off and slow down.  You are the ones holding the wheel, not the Police, not the RTA or the Government.  Stop making excuses and accept that you control your destiny.  This is a great forum and if it educates and saves one life it is worth it.
An Australian Truck Driver – started in the transport industry in 1979.   No fatalities, has not up-ended one or hurt any person with a heavy vehicle.

What the motorist said …..

Lyndal, I love your website!  I’m not a truck driver  …..  I’m an elderly woman who drives up and down the F3 once or twice a week.  I used to get very annoyed at huge semi trailer drivers and their aggressiveness.  Since I’ve been reading the comments on your website,  I have become more aware of the problems the truck drivers have and I’ve become more courteous when driving.

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“Six Australian Soldiers have died in Afghanistan in the six years since 2002 and the nation mourns  …..  10,200 Australian road users have died in the six years since 2002 and the nation lets out a collective sigh of inevitability”

COASTTOCOAST100 was initially set up in July 2007 on the NSW North Coast as a local road safety initiative targeting aggressive heavy vehicle driver behaviour on the Pacific Highway in response to community sentiment that road users were no longer prepared to be endlessly tolerant of systemic dangerous driving behaviour by a small but potentially deadly group of heavy vehicle operators.

Twelve months down the track, having hosted almost half a million (491,000) visitors through our website in the 12 months to July 2008, COASTTOCOAST100 now embodies the views of ALL road users as the result of significant input from both motorists and the transport sector at all levels.  Thousands have submitted contributions for comment and thousands more have reported aggressive heavy vehicle driver behaviour.

To our knowledge, we are the only community group in Australia set up to examine driver behaviour through the lens of an on-going open forum that actively encourages ALL road users to contribute to the dialogue.  This conversation has continued for 12 months and as a consequence we at Coasttocoast100 now believe we are equipped to begin to make recommendations to Governments on the best way forward in finding workable solutions in this vital area.

Whilst we acknowledge and commend the various Governments commitment to seeking to reduce the road toll through the implementation of a myriad of initiatives – putting it bluntly – we must agree with community sentiment that these same initiatives are simply not working.  In our current economic environment, we are now seeing instances of intergovernmental agreement on issues vital to the nation as a whole.  Road safety – we believe – is an issue demanding immediate, integrated, strategic co-operation between State and Federal Governments.

Whilst in the long term, there is a recognized need for increased driver education and assessment, in the short term the community is demanding a more inclusive approach in the fight to make our roads safer.  The high level volume of “traffic” through the COASTTOCOAST100 website clearly illustrates the importance communities place on the issue of road safety with letters and comments mirroring our belief that many recent/current initiatives are viewed as inadequate, inappropriate, reactive and expensive doing little to stem the carnage.

In February 2008 The Hon Anthony Albanese MP – upon becoming Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government – said he was shocked to learn that the Howard Government’s National Road Safety Strategy target of a 40% reduction in road deaths by 2010 was unlikely to be achieved.   With Labour Governments in power both State and Federally it is now time to move forward on this vital issue.

In 2008, State Transport Ministers signed off on New Heavy Vehicle Driver Fatigue laws to commence September 29.  Interestingly, ABS statistics indicate that fatigue – as a contributing cause to road accidents in NSW – has remained steady in the period 1990 to 2006 whilst speed as a contributing cause to road accidents increased over the same period from 13.4% in 1990 to 17.2% in 2006.

WE believe relevant State and Federal Politicians need to initiate a similar intergovernmental agreement targeting dangerous driving behaviour through the introduction of a national road safety hotline.  We believe – as do the community at large – that road safety is everyone’s responsibility. We believe that EVERY driver has the right to protect themselves from those willing to risk the lives of others on the roads. WE believe there is a need for a national, independent, effective reporting system.

With up to 80% of Australia’s long-distance road freight using all major roads across the country, with our aging population taking to the roads in the hundreds of thousands as grey nomads, with the freight task predicted to double in the next 8 years, resource booms, with an estimated 18 million cars on the road , lack of rail infrastructure and with new national fatigue legislation on the horizon – the unintended consequences of which are likely to put more heavy vehicles on the roads during daylight hours – the issue of driver safety is now critical to the nation as a whole.

The COASTTOCOAST100 National Road Safety Hotline Discussion Paper can be viewed on this website under the “Reports” tab.  This is your opportunity now to personally contribute to the success of this vital community project.  Please take the time to read the contents then contact COASTTOCOAST100 with your ideas on how best we can refine the proposal to ensure it produces the best possible outcomes in terms of reducing the road toll.

“Road safety is a community responsibility.”The Government cannot get behind the wheel of every vehicle.”
The Hon. ERIC Roozendaal – NSW Govt Minister for Roads.

NEWSFLASH!

Chris is back!  Having taken a short break from COASTTOCOAST100 Chris Cartwright has returned to continue writing his Safety Snapshots column.  For those of you new to the site Chris is a young truck driver with a serious eye on road safety.  He was also a finalist in the 2007 Young Australian Truck Driver Awards.  These new modules in which Chris outlines his views on driver education can be viewed both in the letters section where it is easier for readers to make comment and also on the Safety Snapshots page.

Report a Truckie Reports: In the interest of education and awareness, a selection of “Report a Truckie Reports” will now be featured on the website to enable truck drivers and other road users to examine the incident in question and make constructive comment on driver behaviour and who actually is driving dangerously.  Truckie Colin quite rightly pointed out in a September 7 incident that BOTH parties were speeding.  All incidents featured are alleged.