The state government has urged motorists to slow down for emergency vehicles as National Road Safety Week gets underway. Video by Aaron Smith (9/5/2024)
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00:00Well National Road Safety Week is such an important time for us to get across to the community
00:04that how important it is that people are being safe on our roads and today in particular the
00:11theme is protecting those who protect us and assist us. It's a message that really hits home
00:17for a lot of our first responders and our roadside assist crews because they do amazing work in our
00:23community and helping people in their time of need. Road trauma is a very difficult thing for anyone
00:29to witness and our first responders who are there time and time again it takes a particular toll.
00:36Tasmanian Police through all their geographical areas are making a day of action to focus on
00:42enforcing the road rules and continuing to keep the community safe so we will be out and about
00:47within your community trying to enforce the rules and ensure that you are safe within the community.
00:54We always ask the community to play their part and provide once a safe working place for us by
01:00slowing down but also doing their bit thinking about the fatal five and driving safely and
01:07thinking about how their actions impact on the community. As with every day of the year the RACT
01:12is focused on keeping all Tasmanians safe on our roads but today particularly we're focused on our
01:17own patrols and protecting those who protect us. Every year our patrols will rescue about
01:236,000 Tasmanians by the side of the road every month often under incredibly difficult conditions,
01:30darkness, rain, difficult locations and so they do their very best to protect themselves our
01:37members and the general public but today particularly we ask all Tasmanians to think
01:42about making sure they slow down when they see the flashing lights. If you're in an 80 zone or below
01:47make sure you slow down to 40 and if you're in a 100 zone or above make sure that you slow down
01:52as much as you possibly can. Our patrol was stopped by the side of the road to help a member
01:57with a caravan. As you can see our patrols are large vans bright yellow and despite that a member
02:04of the motoring public ran into the back of the van. We always park behind our members to make
02:10sure we're keeping them as safe as we possibly can but despite all these precautions you can
02:15see the results. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt but that could so easily have been a different
02:22outcome.