Truckies have warned of risky driver behaviour on rural roads

Lowes Petroleum's Bernie Morris was at the BP Service Station in Tamworth's Taminda with an inflatable truck on Tuesday September 5, in a show of support for the Australian Road Safety's (ASRF) Rural Road Safety Month.

"What upsets me more than anything, is that out of the nearly 1200 people who died on the roads last year, about 100 were school aged children," Mr Morris said, standing beside the air-filled truck covered in the signatures of people pledging to obey the road rules.

"When you think about that, those are people who weren't involved in the driving, they weren't involved in planning, but unfortunately, they've been the ones impacted."

The two-week school holidays start on Monday, September 25, with Mr Morris saying the roads would be much safer if people just put more effort into planning their routes and preparing for dangers.

"As a heavy vehicle operator we are made to plan, we plan our stops, we plan when our drivers sleep, all of that, but other people just jump in their cars and off they go," Mr Morris said

"Often there's a perception that driving on country roads has less risk; that perception is wrong."

Deaths on rural roads accounted for more than two thirds of the previous year's 1,188 road toll, according to Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE) statistics released earlier this year.

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Mr Morris said he has seen some of the most "gobsmacking" dash cam footage taken from the front of their hundreds of fuel-transporting trucks in regional areas during the previous months.

"One of our most recent instances shows a motorcycle barely missing a fuel tanker head-on after breaking multiple road rules," Mr Morris said.

"It's crazy what our drivers go through. We even had footage where it is obvious the person has pretty much fallen asleep before waking up in the nick of time."

Mr Morris was referring to research released by the ASFR on September 1, which showed that one in 10 drivers had experienced "terrifying moments of microsleep - where they were awake but unable to recall driving".

"We usually have what is called a 'tell'," Mr Morris said.

"This is when you know you're getting tired, some people yawn or rub their heads, others get fidgety or they get itchy and they ignore that and next thing they're gone [fast asleep at the wheel].

"So, it's important to know when you're getting tired, to stop and take 20 minutes to walk in the fresh air, have a piece of fruit ... but stop when you're tired."

The ASFR research also found, alarmingly, that 51 per cent of road trippers openly admitted to breaking road rules in rural areas.

The main culprits were: driving over the speed limit (41pc), using a mobile phone behind the wheel (13pc) and crossing a double line (11pc), with 27pc believing it was safe to do so, 19pc being distracted, and 9pc thinking they would not get caught.

Mr Morris said it is important road trippers not only properly plan their route in case of any dangers, such as; extreme weather events, what to do if their car breaks down, and fuel stops along the way, but to also have their vehicle regularly serviced.

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