Responsibility
Commonwealth
States and territories
In urban areas, heavy vehicles feature prominently in crashes causing deaths and serious injuries to vulnerable road users. There is a large amount of major infrastructure construction currently underway or planned across Australia. As much of this increased activity is in city and suburban areas, it brings increased risk to vulnerable road users.
Governments will investigate options to require improved heavy vehicle safety standards through their construction contracts, informed by the results of current trials in Victoria and NSW involving increased driver training requirements and fitting improved safety equipment to heavy vehicles used on major projects. As part of this work there are also opportunities to improve awareness of risk among both heavy vehicle drivers and vulnerable road users.