We Need Space campaign aims to provide motorists with safety facts and tips
Garth Tander is the face of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s (NHVR’s) new motorist-focused heavy vehicle safety campaign – We Need Space.
Tander, the Australian Supercars star and current commentator, heads the initiative which encourages all road users to understand the facts and dynamics of heavy vehicles on roads, highways and freeways.
“Recent research shows that light vehicles cause up to four-out-of-five crashes involving heavy vehicles,” NHVR CEO Sal Petroccitto says.
“Being aware of simple safety tips such as a truck’s blind spot, allowing extra distance for a heavy vehicle to brake and the space needed to turn can reduce the risk for all road users.
“Having a driver of the quality of Garth Tander keen to learn more about driving safely around trucks shows that everyone can still learn about driver safety on our roads.
“Across Australia we’ve seen a gradual decline in heavy vehicle fatalities from 220 in 2014 to 177 in 2018, but that figure is still too high.”
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Tander was Australian Supercars Champion in 2007, won three Bathurst 1000s at Mount Panorama, and has won and finished second in the Bathurst 24hr Race.
He is joined in the campaign by truck driver Kerri Connors, who was named Tasmania’s best professional truck driver at the Tasmanian Transport Industry awards last October, was the Australian, Volvo Trucks Drivers’ Fuel Challenge and was a close third in the Volvo Trucks’ global Fuelwatch Challenge.
The campaign is to include three videos and a range of information and fact sheets for light vehicle drivers.
“It’s important that all road users are aware that a truck is difficult to manoeuvre, it has large blindspots and can have unpredictable traffic coming from behind, alongside and in front,” Petroccitto says.
“When you add it all together, it really does take a lot of skill for a truck driver to get from point A to point B safely and all road users need to play a role in the safety of that journey.”
The We Need Space Campaign was funded by $250,000 from the NHVR’s federally supported Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative program.
Victorian Minister for Roads, Road Safety and TAC Jaala Pulford lauds the initiative as a valuable promotion of road safety to try turn around recent fatality trends.
“We’ve had a tragic start to the year on our roads and this campaign provides some simple and easy tips for sharing our roads safely with heavy vehicles.
“I urge motorists not to be tempted by taking a risk to save a minute – wait for an overtaking lane or a safe opportunity to overtake large vehicles.”
For more information visit www.weneedspace.com.au