The NRSPP is proud to have sponsored the award for Best Paper with Implications for Workplace Road Safety since its inception five years ago. The award for this year was presented by the NRSPP Independent Chair Professor Emerita Judith Charlton to:
OzHelp for their paper “Health in Gear: Improving Health and Wellbeing for the Transport and Logistics Industry”. The paper was presented by Emily Brown and co-authored by Frank Arsegoa and Lesa O’Leary.
The Health in Gear program is a health and wellness initiative for truck drivers, developed in collaboration with drivers, for the driving community. Health in Gear is an initiative of the OzHelp Foundation, a national suicide prevention organisation and has been funded by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s (NHVR) Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative (HVSI). The program supports drivers in achieving optimal wellness through access to key information in accessible health tips.
The program also includes the ‘Truckies Tune Up’ (TTU) – a physical roadside health check with follow up support, counselling, and referrals to other services as required.
Special mention for Melanie Suitor of Parkes, Forbes and Lachlan Shire Councils for their paper on Collaborating for success – the Load Restraint Education Project.
The safe carriage of loads affects us all. Loose or incorrectly restrained loads became a growing area of concern in 2020, with a 49% increase in the number of load restraint breaches detected by NSW Police on local roads.
The Load Restraint Education Project was developed to curb these figures. It focused on the safe transportation of hay bales, machinery and general freight. As a result, load restraint knowledge has increased, breaches have decreased by 69% and there were no load restraint incidents during 2021.
NRSPP Featured Papers This year the NRSPP team contributed three papers which included:
Olivia Dobson: Evaluation of the National Road Safety Partnership Program
Jennifer Rivera Gonzalez: Road Transport Suicide Prevention – Transferable Learnings for Road Safety
Jerome Carslake: The Art of Building Engaging Heavy Vehicle Tool Box Talks
Frank Arsegoa and Lesa O’Leary accepting the award on behalf of Emily Brown.