Just in time for harvest season, the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) released their awareness campaign around truck safety targeted at young drivers.

The NHVR wants to increase the deadly lack of awareness around trucks with the third phase of their Don't #uck with a Truck campaign and teamed up with young drivers acting as deceased versions of themselves. 

“The new Don’t #uck With A Truck videos depict young drivers as ghosts after they have been in an accident with a truck due to their unsafe driving, pushing the message that Being Dead is Boring,” NHVR Acting Chief Operations Officer Michelle Taylor said. 

The NHVR wants to increase awareness of truck safety through TikTok messaging that they believe will draw the attention of their younger audience. 

“With young drivers vastly overrepresented in crashes with heavy vehicles, the NHVR recognises the importance of grabbing the attention of young light vehicle drivers in a way that resonates with them and that starts important conversations on road safety," Ms Taylor said. 

Particularly males between the ages of 15 and 24 were overrepresented in transport injury hospitalisations and death with over 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants per year, according to data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. 

Especially with harvest season coming into full bloom it is important to be mindful of trucks, Lachlan Shire Council's Road Safety and Injury Prevention Officer Melanie Suitor said. 

"There'll be quite a lot of trucks on the road, transporting machinery from farm to farm or transporting grain to silo," Ms Suitor said. 

"I think people don't realize that trucks have blind spots where they can't be seen." 

 Many drivers are unaware of the dangers of overtaking a turning truck. Photo credit: Don't #uck with a truck Facebook

"If you end up on the inside of a truck turning left, it just cannot see you. You've snuck up in its blind spot."

Truck safety awareness should be encouraged in driver training, Ms Suitor said. 

Nearly half of all L and P plate drivers had not completed driving lessons alongside trucks and also around half of inexperienced drivers are not aware to keep one lane next to a truck free when it is turning. 

"The sooner we start talking to young drivers about how to share the road safely with trucks and be aware of these blind spots so that we can all get to where we're going safely," Ms Suitor said.

"At the end of the day, being dead isn’t just boring, it’s irreversible," Ms Taylor said.