“Community Group Campaign For Road Safety Hotline”
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
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Archive for the ‘Press Release’ Category
A hard-hitting new advertisement launched this month portrays a fatigued paramedic fatally injured after crashing his ambulance into a power pole.
New National Road Death Statistics
Saturday, September 20th, 2008
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FleetSafe - Innovative Vehicle Technologies
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government
The Faces behind the Tragedy
Monday, September 8th, 2008
Article from The Courier Mail
Sophie Elsworth
September 06, 2008 12:00am
A SUNSHINE Coast woman who died in a horrific accident on a section of the Bruce Highway on Thursday in which two other people died was pregnant. Close friends of Rachel Purdy, 31, who was seven months pregnant, poured out their emotions yesterday on internet social networking site Facebook.
Ms Purdy, from Tewantin, was killed when two semi-trailers, a truck and her car collided north of Pomona, near Noosa, on Thursday afternoon. Friend Amy Dutton, wrote a heartfelt message on Ms Purdy’s Facebook site only hours after the crash. “I love you Rach, I’m hurting so much. I wanted to meet your baby because I know that they would have been so special, just like you are to so many people,” she wrote. “I’m glad that I met you because you’re the only positive and strong light in my life. Keep shining babe.”
Another friend, Lavina Webb, also wrote a message on the site in which she remembered Ms Purdy’s “beautiful smile”. “I wish you all the best in your next life and I am thinking of you and your beautiful smile every day I live without you,” she wrote. Ms Purdy was the state manager at hair-removal company Hairfree where she had worked for four years.
Her car caught fire, also claiming the life of a 29-year-old Tinbeerwah man who was a passenger in the vehicle. Friends and family of truck driver Mark Hamilton, 45, a father of three from Caloundra, also killed in the crash, were in shock yesterday and trying to come to terms with their loss.
Rodney Sharp, manager of Sharp’s Plywood where Mr Hamilton worked, visited the crash site on Thursday and was shocked by the “horrendous” sight.
“Speed-limit device trialed in cars …..”
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
Lyndal, thought this might put a smile on young Chris’s dial. Been a long time coming! Dave N
A GPS device that can limit the speed of cars that are traveling too fast will soon be on trial in New South Wales. One-hundred cars in the Illawarra, south of Sydney, will be fitted with the satellite devices, which alert drivers to the speed limit of the roads they are on.
The system can then slow down the vehicles by decreasing fuel supply to their engines.
The NSW Government will look at expanding the system if the 18-month trial in Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama is successful. But Opposition road safety spokesman Andrew Fraser says the trial is not the right way to try to reduce speeding.
“What we are calling for is a far more visible policing presence, not gimmicks that are going to be trialled for 18 months and put off the need for more police,” he said.
Roads Minister Eric Roozendaal says the devices could help cut the road toll.
“Any technology that slows drivers down and makes the roads safer is worth looking at,” he said. “It may well have applications for recalcitrant speeders.”
Foreign-Trained Truckies `Danger’
Friday, October 5th, 2007
(Source: Daily News - Monday 17/9/2007)
Road safety group opposes govt plan
RICHMOND MP Justine Elliot has spoken out against a plan which could allow poorly trained foreign truck drivers on Australian roads.
Ms Elliot has met road safety groups, transport business operators and transport industry workers to discuss a federal government plan to allow so-called “457 visa holders” to work in the transport industry. “I have grave concerns for the safety of all road users if untrained and improperly licensed drivers are driving trucks on our roads,” Ms Elliot said.
“This is an irresponsible and potentially dangerous action by the Howard government and the National Party.”
She also praised the Coast to Coast 100 group, campaigning against aggressive heavy vehicle driving.
“As a former police officer, I have seen road fatalities firsthand, that is why I know how important it is as a community to look at ways to improve road safety,” Ms Elliot said.
“Coast to Coast is working with truck drivers and the transport industry to achieve a positive outcome for our community,” she said after a transport industry forum at Tweed Heads.
A TWU spokesperson noted 457 visa holders were exempt from the usual tests and training required of other international drivers, Ms Elliot said.
She also said a small business owner had advised that 457 visa holders were paid $15,000 less per year than other workers, which could impact on businesses employing local workers.
Truckies to be tracked by satellite
Friday, October 5th, 2007
(Source: Heath Gilmore and Samantha Freestone, The Sun-Herald, 20/08/07)
Satellite technology will be used to make sure semitrailers stick to new approved heavy vehicle routes.
The national global positioning system monitoring scheme means trucks will be allowed to carry heavier loads on those routes, NSW Roads Minister Eric Roozendaal has confirmed.
About 2200 heavy vehicles have registered for the Intelligent Access Program, beginning in November.
Lobbying has begun for state governments to commit to new laws targeting truckies who drive when tired and bosses who force them to stay on the road.
It is understood the National Transport Commission will push for laws allowing drivers, now permitted to work 14 hours non-stop, to work a maximum of 12 hours a day. It also aims to educate drivers on how to manage fatigue.
Trucks were involved in 127 deaths in Australia in the year to March 2006, the latest period for which figures are available, says Monash University’s Accident Research Centre.
Mr Roozendaal said the access program would increase safety and improve infrastructure management by ensuring heavy vehicles followed approved routes.
"Global positioning technology will be used to track heavy vehicles as part of the new higher mass limits routes that have been introduced," he said. "A national approach for the use of this technology was agreed to by all Australian transport ministers."
Lyndal Denny, who created the Coast to Coast 100 campaign, a website for aggrieved motorists to report misbehaving and aggressive truck drivers, said any initiative to make our roads safer must be taken seriously.
"From a road safety point of view, greater monitoring is good as long as its thorough and continuous," she said.
Rage against the machines
Friday, October 5th, 2007
(Source: Heath Gilmore, Sydney Morning Herald - July 22, 2007)
A WOMAN’S terrifying encounter with a truck has led to a grassroots road-safety campaign targeting tailgating and speeding heavy vehicle drivers across NSW.
Lyndal Denny could not forget the sight of a truck bearing down on her small sedan on the Pacific Highway earlier this year, and decided something had to be done.
She has launched a website for aggrieved motorists to report misbehaving truck drivers across the state, and she is petitioning the NSW Government to make it mandatory for truck drivers to maintain a minimum of 60 metres distance between themselves and the car in front.
Motorists are being encouraged to participate in the Coast to Coast 100 campaign by buying car bumper stickers to help ward off tailgating truck drivers.
The trucking industry has been warned about Ms Denny’s intentions to target rogue drivers and demand answers for their behaviour. Letters have been sent to hundreds of trucking companies and the major retailers who employ them in the three eastern states to advise them of the mass action.
And the campaign has had a major coup, with retailing giant Woolworths agreeing to put a notice on more than 80 per cent of its trailers urging motorists to report misbehaving drivers to the company.
Any incidents emailed to the campaign’s website (www.coasttocoast100 .com.au) will be taken up with the trucking company, Ms Denny said. If the industry response was unsatisfactory, the incident would be reported to the police and media.
“This is our opportunity as a community to work together to let these drivers know we have had enough,” she said. “I vowed no one should have to go through what I did and I wanted to do something about it.”
NSW Staysafe chairman Geoff Corrigan, MP for Camden, said he supported the Coast to Coast 100 initiative but urged caution about its use as a vindictive tool.
“[Keeping] sensible distances sounds like a great idea but I am concerned other vehicles would try to use that space,” he said.
Australian Trucking Association CEO Stuart St Clair said any initiative that raised the level of performance of drivers would be welcome.
“There are no excuses for tailgating,” he said. “We are quite happy if people report unsafe driving. I would be concerned, however, about vigilante groups targeting drivers. It is more appropriate for road agencies and police to control the behaviour of drivers on the roads.”
OFFICIAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCH TODAY!
Tuesday, June 26th, 2007
Hi, my name is Lyndal Denny. Welcome to the COAST to COAST 100 website - the focal point of a new road safety campaign borne out of recent North Coast Community groundswell against dangerous, intimidating driving practices by a minority of heavy vehicle drivers on the Pacific highway. This morning from 9 a.m. Ballina Fair Shopping Centre will play host to the launch of this long-overdue road safety campaign that will enable both residents and visitors to FINALLY do something about the on-going problem of aggressive, intimidating behaviour by heavy vehicle drivers as they tailgate and speed through our north coast communities along the Pacific Highway. (more…)
