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Truck Drivers are People Too

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There is a problem with the public perception of truck drivers in Australia, but people need to be aware truck drivers are people too. This Re:act campaign developed by Hard Edge in collaboration with Swinburne University of Technology gave design students a creative brief that challenged them to raise awareness of a road safety issue and change behaviour among their age group.

In 2018 the brief was around sharing the road safely with trucks. Here are some of this year’s participants from Swinburne University speaking about the journey they’ve been on with Re:act 2018, and how it’s shifted their attitudes and behaviour towards trucks and truck drivers.

Representing just four per cent of vehicles on Australia’s roads, heavy vehicles are involved in more than 15 per cent of the nation’s road fatalities. Approximately 60 per cent of people killed in heavy truck crashes are light vehicle occupants, and research shows that most of the time these accidents are not the fault of the truck driver.

The 2018 Re:act brief focuses on educating 18-25 year old road users on safe interaction with trucks. With the number of trucks on our roads expected to double in the next twenty years, we must ensure young road users are aware of the risks of sharing the road with trucks and change their behaviour to reduce crashes and ‘near misses’.

“We believe this is the first time an education campaign about vulnerable road users around trucks has been specifically targeted at the 18-25 year old segment,” says Andrew Hardwick, Hard Edge.

Conceptualised by Hard Edge, Re:act is a behavioural change project that gives communication design students the chance to develop a campaign that positively influences the communities they live in. Now in its third year, Re:act has raised awareness and behavioural change around such issues as the safe use of mobile phones in vehicles and the risks of drink driving the morning after alcohol.

 

 

truck drivers are people too

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