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Key messages |
| NSW country roads |
- 85% of all fatal crashes on NSW country roads involve a country resident.
- Two-thirds of all NSW fatality crashes occur on country roads.
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| Animals on country roads |
- Animal collisions are a significant risk on country roads, especially at dawn and dusk. Slow down, follow warning signs and be prepared for the unexpected.
- When you’re driving in remote areas, slow down, follow warning signs and keep an eye out for wildlife on or near the roadside.
- Be aware that horses can be easily frightened and unpredictable. If you’re passing a horse, whether it’s being ridden or led, or is unridden, remember to:
- slow down and allow plenty of room when overtaking
- never use your horn or rev your engine, as this could scare the horse.
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| Motorcycles |
- Wearing protective gear makes you less likely to be injured in a crash. If you are injured while wearing protective clothing, you're less likely to be hospitalised.
- When cornering, observe all road speed and advisory speed signs - they're there to assist you in making decisions as you approach them. You need to share the road with other users, particularly oncoming traffic.
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| Speeding |
- Speeding is never safe.
- Speed increases the risk of having a crash, as well as the severity of the crash.
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| Seatbelts |
- Seatbelts save lives.
- Wearing a seatbelt doubles your chance of surviving a crash and reduces the risk of injury.
- Drivers are responsible for making sure everyone in the vehicle is wearing a seatbelt, or child restraint, and wearing it properly.
- Wear a seatbelt properly - the lap portion of a seatbelt should lie across the bony section of your hips and the sash should fall across your chest and mid shoulder. Always make sure your seatbelt is adjusted firmly and lies flat (no twists in the webbing or fabric).
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| Heavy vehicles |
- Due to their size and length, trucks have larger blind spots than the average car.
- Truck drivers are looking out for you, so you should look out for them – it’s a shared responsibility.
- Trucks can’t stop as quickly as some other vehicles on our roads. Avoid merging in front of trucks, or unexpectedly stepping in front of trucks to cross the road.
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| Drink & drug driving |
- You don’t have to be drunk to be affected by alcohol. You might feel normal, but no one drives well after drinking alcohol.
- Trying to calculate your BAC is impossible. Your BAC starts to rise as soon as you start drinking and may continue to increase for up to two hours after you have stopped.
- Don’t drink any alcohol if you plan to drive.
- Using illicit drugs causes changes in the brain that can impair your driving ability and increase your crash risk.
- If you’re affected by alcohol or other drugs after a night out, trying to drive or ride home puts you and other road users in danger.
- For your own safety and the wellbeing of others, have a Plan B to get home.
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| Fatigue |
- Fatigue-related crashes can happen on any trip, no matter how long or short or what time of day.
- Think about how tired you are before you drive, recognise the early warning signs when driving, and know what to do to avoid driving tired.
- Fatigue-related crashes are almost three times as likely to be fatal than crashes not involving fatigue.
- Being awake for 17 hours has a similar effect on driving performance as a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.05.
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| Safer roads - Audio Tactile Line Marking (ATLM) |
- Safe roads are designed and built to be more forgiving and account for human error. If a driver or rider makes a mistake, safer road design can significantly reduce the chance that it'll result in a death or serious injury.
- Audio Tactile Line Marking (ATLM), also known as rumble strips, are small, raised bumps placed along the edges of roads and in the centre of roads that target run-off-road to left and head-on crashes, often associated with fatigue and distraction.
- They alert motorists who are drifting out of their lane by creating a sound and vibration.
- ATLM is estimated to reduce crashes when vehicles leave the road by 15 to 25%. When installed with wide centreline, rumble strips can reduce fatalities and injuries from head-on crashes by up to 65%.
- The benefits of this treatment include:
- Reduction in head-on and run-off-road crashes.
- Improved visibility of centrelines/edge lines during adverse weather conditions.
- Low cost implementation.
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