It’s a matter of urgency
WHY someone wouldn’t slow down in their car while passing an active emergency, as a demonstration of common sense if anything, is a mystery.
Thankfully, from September this year, everyone will be required to slow to 40km/h on all NSW roads when police, ambulance, fire, SES or rescue vehicles are stopped and have their red or blue lights flashing.
It’s part of a one-year trial which will be monitored by the NSW Government and which could come into effect permanently if results prove positive.
For example, all our emergency services volunteers come home after a shift without injury or worse.
Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria already have the law and in NSW it’s something emergency services volunteers have had to campaign hard for to get a speed limit around their vehicles and accident sites, to prevent further incidents.
In February, a case in point arose when two police officers suffered horrific injuries when a motorist on a mobile phone drove into them as they set up a roadside breath-testing checkpoint. One suffered a broken leg, and the other had to have his foot and part of this leg amputated.
It’s true, we live in the Age of the Orange Vest governed by some over-zealous occupational health and safety rules, but noone should ever have to endure that kind of outcome from a day on the job, especially when the biggest danger is the people
you’re paid to protect.
So, thumbs up to the policy makers who are protecting the protectors.