Bulk fuel transporter Lowes Petroleum has shared dashcam vision of some of the frightening near-misses its drivers have faced in recent times.
The company has over 200 drivers transporting millions of litres of fuel a year across hundreds of thousands of kilometres of rural roads each year.
Lowes Petroleum’s general manager of health, safety, security and environment (HSSE) Bernie Morris says there’s rarely a day that goes by where he isn’t left gobsmacked after reviewing driver dash cam footage.
He says motorists are taking risks on rural roads that they wouldn’t do in the city.
Lowes Petroleum is pleading with motorists not to be ‘that driver’, especially during the upcoming school holidays as roads get busier.
What does Lowes mean by “that driver”?
“You know, the one people keep talking about for years to their friends: the one who overtook you on a blind corner, across double white lines, texting on their phone as you passed. The one that put your families lives so at risk, with their stupidity,” the company said.
Lowes Petroleum has once again partnered with the Rural Road Safety Foundation for Rural Road Safety Month, which takes place during September.
It recently held a launch in Dubbo, NSW, with local firefighters and Mayor Matthew Dickerson.
The event was aimed at encouraging motorists to take responsibility for their driving: embracing the Rural Road Safety Foundation’s sunflowers symbol: ‘help sow the seeds of change – road safety starts with you’.
Bernie Morris (centre) at the launch in Dubbo. Image: Lowes Petroleum“NSW had the highest deaths recorded on rural roads, making up 233 of the 811 lives lost nationally,” Morris said.
“Rural road deaths in 2023 made up 64 per cent of the road toll. School holidays kick off at the end of the month and what upsets me most is the number of school-aged children who are also part of that road toll.
“When you think about that, those are people who weren’t involved in the driving, they weren’t involved in planning, but unfortunately, they’ve been the ones impacted”
Although rural and regional roads are significantly less populated than urban centres, fatalities on rural and regional roads make up roughly two-thirds of the driving death toll each year.
Following the 4.9 per cent increase in fatal crashes on Australian rural roads last year, the Rural Road Safety Foundation has released research to help drive down the heightened risk in regional areas. New data has shown an alarming trifecta of individual attitudes toward risk, consequences, and overall lack of rural road safety resilience, may be fuelling fatal and serious incidents.
Morris said Lowes Petroleum took rural road safety personally with almost its entire operation of 500 plus people, regionally based.
“We know from personal experience, when one of our long-time customers died in a car crash a few years ago, just how much a road death impacts communities,” Morris said.
“It is not an exaggeration to say almost everyone shares the pain: pain that resonates through the community.”
From January to July of this year, Lowes explained that 92 lives have been lost in collisions involving heavy vehicles – 60 of these were in regional, rural or remote areas.
The Rural Road Safety Foundation research confirmed that half of Australians, (50 per cent), admit to unsafe driving practises on rural roads. Nearly half (47 per cent) admitted to speeding on country roads, 20 per cent acknowledged driving despite feeling fatigued, and 14 per cent are guilty of using a mobile phone behind the wheel.
Notably, metropolitan drivers were more likely to disregard rural roads safety, with more than a third, (34 per cent) admitting they are less vigilant about road safety in regional areas (compared to 24 per cent of local rural drivers).
The primary reason Australian drivers are breaking laws on regional roads is that they believe it’s safe (41 per cent), but distraction (18 per cent) and not getting caught (11 per cent) were also key factors.
The research has also shed light on a lack of preparedness for regional road risks, with a startling 85 per cent of drivers failing to check safety guidance before road trips.
Additionally, many neglect essential preparations, with 63 per cent not carrying emergency supplies, 51 per cent failing to plan rest stops, and 46 per cent not checking the weather or planning routes.
[signup]
The post Footage shared of frightening near misses, as company urges motorists not to be ‘that driver’ appeared first on Big Rigs.