No. of truck movements: 350 a day
No. of students educated: 80 a year
Synopsis:
A national aggregates company is taking a local approach to road safety, educating school students approaching driving age about how to safely share the road with trucks. Its commitment to a regular in-school safety program is reducing the risks for the local community and its drivers.
Key Outcomes:
- Drivers are ignorant of specific safety dangers involving trucks, such as required stopping distance and blind spots
- Real-life stories about potential consequences of dangerous driving, delivered by ‘genuine’ people with lived experience, has impact for a young audience
- Educating young people, before they receive their car driver’s licence, about road safety makes them and the community safer
- Allowing young drivers to sit in a truck enlightens them about the potential dangers and the competing demands for attention truck drivers constantly face
- A sustained commitment to educating young drivers builds collective knowledge over time, increasing the possibility they in turn educate peers and their parents
- Educating car drivers about sharing the road safely with trucks should be part of driver’s licence testing, and companies that operate close to schools should take a leading role in educating young people