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Yanchep students given truckies’ tips for driving around heavy vehicles

Lucy JarvisNorth Coast Times

SAFE road use around heavy vehicles was the focus of the Australian Trucking Association’s (ATA) talks in Yanchep today.

Transafe WA hosted the ATA Safety Trucks first tour through WA, including a visit to Yanchep District High School .

Driver and presenter Glen Schmidtke steered the Volvo prime-mover and trailer into Yanchep, one of about 30 stops during the 12,000km tour to major regional shows, community events and schools.

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“We know many of our younger drivers are not specifically taught how to drive safely around heavy vehicles; it’s not included in your L or P plate tests,” he said.

“Likewise you can hook up and tow a caravan without any additional training requirement on how to manage the increased load alongside other vehicles, and especially on roads frequented by heavy vehicles.

“With WA home to some very big trucking combinations, and the largest number of registered caravans and camper trailers per capita, the skill-set is more important than ever.”

WA’s Road Safety Commissioner Kim Papalia welcomed the Safety Truck initiative due to the number of heavy vehicles on the state’s roads transporting general freight, ore, grain and livestock.

Of the 88 road fatalities in WA during the first six months of 2016, 12 involved a truck in the crash.

Recent statistics released by the National Truck Accident Research Centre show that in collisions between cars and trucks involving fatalities, the truck was not at fault 84 per cent of the time.

“This is a great opportunity for general road users to gain an understanding of the length of heavy haulage vehicles and their braking capacity before they attempt to overtake them, as well as the visibility and manoeuvrability limitations,” Mr Papalia said.

“All road users need to share responsibility to decrease road trauma.”

Yanchep’s Year 10 Keys for Life students got to see inside the Safety Truck exhibit and learn truckies’ top tips such as not cutting in front of trucks, not overtaking turning trucks, and avoiding truck blind spots.

Visit www.transafewa.com.au for more information.