March 23, 2018
Researchers at James Cook University are seeking public feedback to help them find ways of minimising road accidents involving large agricultural vehicles.
The online survey will be open until April 15.
JCU Associate Professor Richard Franklin said Australian accident data was patchy but there had been at least 577 crashes involving agricultural vehicles and trailers in Australia over a decade, resulting in 24 deaths and 278 injuries.
These figures suggested agricultural vehicles could raise a unique set of safety concerns.
Dr Franklin said JCU’s new research was being funded by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator and The National Farmers Federation in an effort to fill the information void.
“We’re going to explore the nature of incidents that involve large, slow-moving agricultural vehicles; we’ll also be looking at people’s attitudes and awareness to them and what they think about road sharing and road safety,” Dr Franklin said.
He said previous studies had suggested the most common crash types of large agricultural vehicles involved them running off the road, being rear-ended, or hit during overtaking manoeuvres.
“It’s not clear why this is,” Dr Franklin said.
“While the length and width of a large vehicle may be a factor in them being hit as they are being overtaken, speed differentials may have been a factor, particularly in the rear-end crashes.”
Dr Franklin said it was even larger agricultural vehicles would be seen on roads in the future, driven by the need for greater efficiency and productivity.
“Our overall aim is to improve the safety of all road users,” he said.
- External link: online survey (10-15 minutes to complete, and responses are anonymous).
