Well a Happy New Year to you all.
Sorry for the late posting. Last week end we continued the filming for the Truckies Top Ten Tips and hope to complete more this week end. Five and a half hours to wash the TIV by hand on a hot Barnawartha day last Friday (after me helping a fellow fix two blown tyres and a damaged airbag, for a good start to the day, though he did then buy me breakfast) for filming Saturday and Sunday had me knackered but the TIV looking good. No internet access when I got to Melbourne, late Sunday meant no blog, so I started painting the rope rails on the trailers instead, finishing at 9PM.
I had quite a discussion with a mate driving north from Dubbo yesterday about the Christmas period road toll. What a terrible way to start the year for all those families involved who have lost someone. We weren’t there and only when the crash investigations are completed will most of the facts be known, but unless you are involved or follow up months or years later with coroners reports and the like, do we really listen and learn from what happened?
Those involved may know, they may well accept some responsibility, but none of us want to see anyone killed, let alone members of our own families, yet it continues to happen. Coming out of Melbourne Tuesday afternoon approaching the Shepparton exit, a car passed me as I passed the exit and I looked down to see the passenger point to the exit and the car lept forward across three lanes less than a metre in front of me to take that exit. I am sure the kids in the back appreciated the care and consideration given to their possibly very short lives.
Imagine being the person to kill them all, because the driver simply didn’t think, maybe we should drive on and take the next exit. I never want to be that person, yet others can find themselves in exactly that position, simply by going to work. If they are blamed in the press for those deaths and quite possibly may not be the guilty party, what sort of a life will they have in the future?
I really hope that when we have the Truckies Top Ten Tips (for sharing the road with trucks) available in the future, that it will become part of learner driver education. It will not stop every crash, but it may save a life or more and may just stop a truckie being blamed in the media for something they were not responsible for. I do hope it will prevent a truckie from seeing any such event in their nightmares every night after such a tragedy, but we must do more.
What can you do to improve road safety? Safe Travelling, Rod Hannifey.
TRUCKRIGHT 