Measures to address school transport safety in Queensland

In 2001 the Queensland government established a School Transport Safety Task Force (the Task Force) and an Interdepartmental Working Group to investigate issues relating to school transport safety, and report back with recommendations.

The Task Force developed a package of initiatives to comprehensively address and improve the safety of travel to and from school.

The initiatives included regulatory changes, vehicle-based improvements (relating to school buses), road engineering measures, tests and trials of a number of concepts, public education, and a substantial focus on community engagement in addressing school transport safety issues.

This paper discusses the background to the investigation and processes for development of the initiatives. It will go on to outline the individual initiatives, their implementation status and results of any trial or policy adoption.

This is possibly one of the most comprehensive and integrated approaches to school transport safety yet undertaken in Australia. Queensland Transport will evaluate the implementation of the package of measures in an effort to identify best practice, and provide evaluation reports to enable other jurisdictions to follow progress.