NSW rural shires to develop load restraint education campaign

Three shire councils in NSW’s Central West have won federal funding to develop, implement and evaluate a load restraint public education campaign.

The joint initiative of the Parkes, Forbes and Lachlan
Shires – aimed at raising public awareness of the dangers of heavy vehicle load
restraint breaches — has been granted a share of funding under Round 5 of the Federal
Government’s Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative (HVSI).

Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport
and Regional Development  Michael
McCormack said the initiative will help the local transport industry gain a
better understanding of the fundamentals of load restraint as well as to reduce
the number of load restraint breaches and incidents occurring on local roads.

“The campaign will include pre and post-awareness
surveys, ‘how to’ videos, fact sheets, a social media campaign, and practical
load restraint information sessions,” he said.

“Success will be measured by the results of the
pre/post awareness surveys, police enforcement figures, crash data and feedback
from participants at the practical load restraint information sessions.”

Other projects being funded in this HSVI round target key areas such as developing or testing innovative new technologies, mental health support for drivers, educational campaigns, and training and development.

Some of the technology-focused projects include
testing next-generation base tyres and trialling new mobile cameras under the National
Safety Camera Network initiative to allow real-time monitoring for critical
safety concerns like load limit compliance and driver fatigue.

Funding will also go to the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) and Transafe WA to deliver targeted educational campaigns addressing issues such as how to share the road safely with heavy vehicles.

Click here to see the full list of successful projects and find out more about the Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative program.