The Australian Road Safety Conference (ARSC) 2018 is the largest road safety-dedicated conference in the Southern Hemisphere. The conference saw over 700 delegates attend with a theme of  “Towards Zero: Making it Happen!”, ARSC2018 will showcase the regions’ outstanding researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and industry spanning the plethora of road safety issues identified in the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety.

Front and centre at the conference this year was the Inquiry into the National Road Safety Strategy led by Dr John Crozier and Associate Professor Jeremy Woolley. Within the paper is reference to NRSPP being among a number of non-government road safety enablers independently lead their own initiatives and also support government led actions. Special mention by the authors was made at the conference of the collaborative leadership of NRSPP and scope for Transport for London’s Construction Logistics and Community Safety being replicated in Australia.

NRSPP contributed to the success of this year’s conference with the following.

Organised the symposium “The workplace, why does road safety management vary so much?” which was proudly sponsored by the NSW State Insurance Regulator Authority.

The panellists were from a broad church of organisations who all put workplace road safety front of mind. The panellists explored the key risks to the vehicle as a workplace and their mitigations. What emerged was a lot of common trends, namely a strong safety culture was driven and led from the top; the approach to safety was seeking to be proactive; it is about appealing to hearts and minds in what gets cut through and relates; the community is a key partner; and regulations are the minimum.

The panellists for this symposium are shown in the above photo and include: Keith Hoskins – APA Group; Ken Leacy – Suez; Shane Stokhill – Qld Work Safe Regulator; Dr Sarah Jones – Toll Group; Jerome Carslake – NRSPP/ARRB; Mark Stephens – Uniting Care Queensland; and Luke Brynes – Nestle.

NRSPP also facilitated the symposium Construction Logistics and Community Safety (CLOCS): Australia’s major transport projects bringing UK’s World Best Practice to Australia. Presenters included:

  • Jamie Ross – Director of Safety Rail Projects Victoria which captures the Melbourne Metro project
  • Stephen Jones – Executive Director of Safety, Sustainability and Environment at Sydney Metro
  • Lydia Foster Smith – Traffic Engineer and Transport Planner at Aurecon
  • Mathew Bennett – Transport Planner at Aurecon
  • Chris Brennan, Manager Road Safety Planning, Policy and Reform Division Transport for Victoria

Key points which emerged from the panel session included:

  • An Australian CLOCS, if established, would be able draw on all elements developed by these major infrastructure projects and Transport for London’s CLOCS equating to huge savings;
  • A national program similar to CLOCS would:
    • be advantageous for industry and any building or infrastructure project
    • create a level playing field for industry investment in safety which could not be undertake
    • create continuous improvement in construction logistics safety.
    • Save lives

The final element of NRSPP’s ARSC2018 contribution was the presentation Re:act – Swinburne students challenged by businesses to create behavioural change in their peers around truck safety. This presentation explored the Re:act process, results and the types of messaging students identify to achieve cut-through with their peers. As part of the presentation the new Re:act Video – In their own words: road safety video with a difference shows understanding changes behaviour around trucks featured and the announcement that Re:Act will feature in NSW in 2019.

Keith Hoskins – APA Group; Ken Leacy – Suez; Shane Hoskins – Qld Work Safe Regulator; Dr Sarah Jones – Toll Group; Jerome Carslake – NRSPP/ARRB; Mark Stephens – Uniting Care Queensland; and Luke Brynes – Nestle.

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