Share your road safety initiatives to save lives

Australian businesses could reduce their fatality and injury rates by sharing their proven road safety tips in a new program launched today by the National Transport Commission and led by major industry players. CEO of the NTC Paul Retter said major employers such as Coca-Cola Amatil, BHP Billiton, Telstra, Uniting Care Queensland, Hanson, Holden, Shell and Origin Energy, to name a few, had already signed up to the National Road Safety Partnership Program with more major companies expected to join shortly.

“There is no point keeping any road safety successes secret,” Retter said.

“This program gives employers a library of best practice road safety programs that have been proven to work. Other organisations can simply find an idea that could work in their workplace and start implementing it.

“If organisations find something that works they should actively share it around - even to their competitors.

“Instead of governments bringing in more red tape to keep employees safe, this program gets the same outcomes just by sharing success stories.”

Retter said because almost half the new vehicles sold in Australia were purchased by fleets, this program had the potential to cut the road toll across Australia and reduce road congestion at the same time.

“Following the success of seatbelts and speed cameras, road safety experts are now looking for the next big thing to reduce our road toll,” Retter said.

“Experts predict that road crashes will kill or injure 170,000 Australians over the next five years and work-related road crashes account for almost half of all Australian workplace deaths.

“If businesses share ways of keeping their employees safe on the road there is no doubt they can have a significant impact on our road toll.”

Neil Smedly, Coca-Cola Amatil’s national health and safety operations manager, said improving road safety in their workplace was good for the community and their business.

“Coca-Cola Amatil employees travel more than 56 million kilometres per year, which is why we are using a combination of e-learning and behaviour-based safety programs. We are sharing this knowledge to help others reduce their risk of crashing,” Smedley said.

Steering committee member Mark Stephens, from Uniting Care Queensland, said the program would help other businesses recognise that road safety initiatives more than pay their way while at the same time creating a culture of road safety through the workforce and into the community.

“This program will help businesses keep their employees and fleets safe, productive and sustainable, especially by reducing the costs of injuries and compensation,” Stephens said.

Retter encouraged interested organisations to find out more about how to keep their employees safe from road crashes at www.nrspp.org.au