Loads off roads: Shifting freight to rail creates a shift in road safety.

Australia is not meeting national road safety targets [1], national progress in reducing road trauma over recent years has been much slower than was originally projected [2], and we face a challenging future in which it will become increasingly more difficult to achieve reductions in road trauma without significant investment in the road network [3]. Trucks are over-represented in road fatalities [4], and destructive crashes involving trucks occur across Australia far too often to be considered acceptable in either road safety, public health or the on-road transport workplace systems that it represents.
Yet with political will, coupled to industry and community support and co-operation, we can choose to begin saving more lives quite quickly through compulsory shifting of more freight from road to rail, beginning with specifically targeted routes and freight type – particularly fuel products and other dangerous goods.