Pace Cars launch Slow Down

Date: 31 August 2009

The AWU has successfully tested the use of 'Pace Cars' to cut the level of speeding at road works, at the start of a campaign to prevent deaths and injuries to road workers.

In a test drive to launch the AWU Victorian Branch's Slow Down @ Road Works - Speed Kills campaign, three specially-marked AWU cars significantly cut the incidence of speeding at road works on Melbourne's M1 Freeway.

When the Pace Cars were on the road, AWU Organisers counted 14 speeding vehicles in Reduced Speed Limit Zones at major works on the Monash Freeway, compared to 71 speeding vehicles on the same road at the same time of day just two days earlier.

Carrying flashing orange lights and warning messages, the Pace Cars travel the length of the road works at the maximum Reduced Speed Limit to deter dangerous speeding.

AWU State Secretary Cesar Melhem said the State Government and major construction companies should introduce similar Pace Cars to patrol all major road works across Victoria.

"Every day the lives and safety of hundreds of road workers are being threatened because many motorists do not comply with Reduced Speed Limits at road works," Mr Melhem said.

"Reduced Speed Limits are lawfully required at road works by safety standards but they are not being effectively enforced," he said.

Phil Tuck, AWU Health and Safety Rep on the M1 works, called on speeding motorists to respect road workers' workplaces by slowing down when they see Reduced Speed Limit warnings.

"Some drivers may get home 10 minutes earlier, but we might never go home at all," Phil said after the test drive of the Pace Cars on 27 August.

To boost public support for Reduced Speed Limits, the AWU has also proposed that traffic management companies be more flexible by only reducing speed limits to the lowest levels when workers are on site, allowing higher speeds when workers are off shift.

The recommendations were made in an AWU Submission to the State Transport Minister's Advisory Board in May.

"We should try these new methods to improve compliance with Reduced Speed Limits because the current system is not working. Small increases in speed trigger big increases in crashes, injuries and deaths", Mr Melhem said.

For further information

Contact:	Phil Davey
Union:	The Australian Workers' Union
Contact Mobile:	0414867188
WWW:	http://www.awu.org.au

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