A lesson for SA in driving home road safety message?

With road traffic accidents resulting in far more insurance claims than hijackings – and with SA road safety campaigns making little impact – there’s perhaps a message to be learnt from further afield. According to Sampie Swanepoel, MD of Transvaal Heavy Transport, the SA road transport industry could learn a lot about how to convey a road safety message from its fellow truckers in Australia. The Aussie road haulage industry has quite a few tricks up its sleeve in presenting a road safety campaign, he told FTW. “The primary strategy is to intimately involve the public in conveying your message,” he said. “Not through a bald recitation of road safety tips. Rather to make your presentation entertaining, but with a road safety theme.” At truck shows in Australia, for example, they organise events which involve the whole family. “Having the kids involved is vital,” Swanepoel said. “After all, they are the drivers of tomorrow.” For the adults, one of the tricks would be to let them all sit in the cab of a truck, seeing what the driver sees. While demonstrating all the controls, you could also be pointing out the safety element for each of them. “Just take one main message you’d want to get over,” Swanepoel said. That now standard sign on all big rigs: ‘If you can’t see my mirrors, I can’t see you’. “To highlight this, you’d park a car alongside the rig – but in its blind spot. Let the public look in the truck mirrors, and see nothing. Then make them look out of the passenger window, and see that car right alongside. That gets the message across. And they’ll pass the story on to their friends and family, and spread the road safety message around the town.” That’s what public involvement should be, Swanepoel added. “It should be something fun that kids and parents all remember, with an almost subliminal presentation of the road safety theme.” Swanepoel will take on the task of spreading the road safety sermon to his fellow truckers at this year’s Road Freight Association (RFA) Annual Convention in June. “I will also be asking RFA members and other people, like your readers, to give me any ideas on how best to present and promote the road safety theme,” he said. INSERT & CAPTION The primary strategy is to intimately involve the public in conveying your message. – Sampie Swanepoel