Sitting on the inside with SafeT360

‘Standing On The Outside (Looking In)’. The title of the hit song by Cold Chisel could be a description of how many people see trucks – nothing more than a massive metal beast rolling down the blacktop.

They see the machine, not the person – the flesh and blood – behind the wheel. They have no idea what it’s like to be ‘Sitting on the Inside Looking Out’.

Maybe Jimmy Barnes could write a song along those lines to impart a little knowledge to those who regard a truck as an unwanted hindrance upon their roads or worse, as a toy to be trifled with. “Don’t wanna be held up behind it when the lights turn green.”

There would not be a truck driver who doesn’t experience these scenarios each and every time they climb behind the wheel. More often than not the person playing cat-and-mouse with 40-plus tonnnes of metal is young, relatively inexperienced and (they think) invulnerable.

The Australian Trucking Association, via their SafeT360 program, is doing something about it. Behind a gleaming black FH Volvo Globetrotter sits an equally black trailer that expands out from the side and rear, folds out steps both fore and aft and contains a plethora of information of a trucks limitations and what it’s like to be behind the wheel of one.

The SafeT360 program has been around for a while now and many who have visited a truck show may well have seen it. Over the past two years the rolling education centre has undergone a massive revamp with a specific target audience in mind – 16-25 year olds. Why? Well, there are two reasons:

The first is that 16-25 year olds are the most over-represented group involved in crashes on our roads.

The second is that if that age group can be educated early in their driving careers with good, clear information, they are going to develop good driving habits, not only with regard to trucks, but also toward other road users, and that will hopefully stick with them.

Kayla O’Brien is the SafeT360 Marketing and Engagement Coordinator. “Eighty per cent of the time, when a heavy vehicle and a light vehicle are involved in a crash the light vehicle is at fault, so there are obviously some key messages that aren’t getting through when people are obtaining their driver’s license. We’re here to try and correct that,” she told us.

“We touch on four key messages throughout the exhibition: Truck blind spots, truck stopping distances, distraction and why you don’t overtake a turning truck. These can all be viewed through the virtual reality goggles.”

As you enter the trailer you register on one of the touch screens which personalises the experience. There are several activations throughout the exhibition including short animated videos on the above mentioned subjects.

There is a touch-screen quiz which fields a number of questions on road safety and a true story video from a truck driver’s point of view and what they see on the road.

“The reason we included that in the exhibition is because a lot of people see a truck and think it’s an object only,” commented Kayla. “This video is to create that empathy with the driver. If it’s a person you are seeing instead of an object, you are obviously going to be more courteous.”

The Rock Star of SafeT360 is the Virtual Reality experience. Here you are put in one of six real-life truck seats. Strap in and don the V R headsets and you are taken for the ride of your life through four scenarios, from both the truck driver’s viewpoint as well as from a car. This ‘trip’ is nothing short of spectacular.

The students from schools in and around Deniliquin, NSW, where the truck is stationed for a week all come out of their VR tour simply agog. “Wow!” “I had no idea!” were common rejoinders.

“We did an awful lot of research before we launched this, into how this age group likes to be communicated to,” said Kayla. “Everything is short, sharp and to the point. It is very crisp. I’m finding that it is really sinking in. We will get formal evidence of that once we progress our research project with the University of Newcastle.”

Kayla and the SafeT360 exhibition goes to around 30 events per year. Some may be a larger event where up to 600 people experience it over a couple of days, to smaller events which may reach 100 or so. On this occasion the truck was parked up at Deniliquin, NSW for a week as part of that town’s Driver Education Committee’s annual Driver Education Program – itself a sub-committee of the Deniliquin High School P&C.

Jenny Fellows and husband, Paul, operate Fellows Bulk Transport out of Deniliquin. Some 11 years ago Jenny was driving her son down to Shepparton for flying lessons and was struck by the intensity of the training required to gain a pilot’s licence, where nothing is left to chance.

This thought was followed immediately with another; how little training young people receive before they hop behind the wheel.

Together with a group of equally dedicated folk, the Driver Education Program was launched and has been run annually since. Taking an holistic approach to driver education, the program is supported by the local Ambulance, Police, SES, Driver Trainers, The Deniliquin Car Club and many others who donate their time free of charge.

“This is a full week of driver education for our year 10 learner drivers,” said Jenny. “This year for the first time we have bought along the Finley, Hay and Barham schools, which are the immediate outlying schools. SafeT360 is part of sharing the roads today. In it the learner drivers get to comprehend the capabilities or otherwise of large vehicles. We have motorbikes with the police so that they also understand smaller vehicles and being a rural area we also have the police explaining the dangers of quad bikes.”

After a tour of SafeT360, the group move across to an old Mazda 3. Three volunteer students hop in and a mock accident scenario takes place over the next 40 minutes.

Emergency services are ‘called’ and from around the corner come police cars with red and blues flashing and sirens blaring. They are followed quickly by ambulance and the SES.

What takes place next is a salient lesson in life and death with the vehicle’s occupants tended to, car doors removed with the Jaws of Life and the driver and rear seat passenger extricated and taken to the ambulance. In this scenario, despite the best efforts of the dozen or so professionals in attendance, the front seat passenger doesn’t make it.

This may have been a ‘mock’ accident but that pronouncement left a pall of silence over all attending. Over the years I’ve seen a number of these but none so shocking in its portrayal.

“Now we have to investigate and see if the driver was at fault,” said the commentating Police Sergeant. “Was he on the phone? Were they skylarking in the car? Whatever the cause, three lives and those of their families and friends are changed forever – not forgetting the effect on those who came to their rescue.”

In other years (not possible this year due to COVID restrictions) students are then taken to the Accident and Emergency at Deniliquin Hospital. They even go to the morgue, they go to the police station, they go to the insurance house and then they go to the courthouse and follow the whole scenario through to its conclusion.

Jenny continues: “We have professional driving instruction paid for out of fundraising, we have a day out at the Car Club. We cover car maintenance.

They get mental health first-aid. They get first aid training as in medical first-aid. They get a safety vest to keep in the car and use, whether at an accident or changing a tyre. They receive a flip-card to keep in their glovebox which describes what to do at an accident should you come across one.

“The truck experience is a real eye opener for everyone. They simply have no idea until then of blind spots, stopping distances or the amount of road a truck needs to turn.”

In addition to all this, students are taken through some simple self-defence. “Bearing in mind we’re a country town, we have students going to bigger areas and are on public transport or at Uni, et cetera. So they are taught where to sit in a tram or a bus, where to be in crowds and personal safety. This is all part of the holistic program we run. It’s all about caring for each other.”

Sergeant Ian Brooks attended from Bendigo, Victoria. “I’m making contact with people and getting some good leverage. That SafeT360 truck is an Australia wide thing so that’s coming to Bendigo and I will have no problem pulling this together. But it won’t be run by the police. And that’s a bonus for us as there is always a degree of antipathy toward the uniform. What the local community have done to put this together is nothing short of extraordinary!”

Jenny Fellows is unaware of any other communities currently undertaking a program of this type and scale, but is more than happy to be contacted at jenny@fellowsbulk.com.au