Road Safety

We are all road users at some time, be that as a pedestrian, driver, cyclist or passenger. Almost 50% of crashes in NSW occur in local communities and on local streets. Councils are best placed to tackle road safety, as they are responsible for almost 80% of our roads.

Council follows the Local Government Road Safety Officer program. This is in partnership with the Roads and Maritime Service (RMS), Police and other organisations. The aims are to address local road safety issues, and help to reduce the amount and severity of crashes.

Council uses statistical analysis and community consultation to determine the areas of concern in our community. Every three years, we develop an Action Plan to address these issues. The Centre for Road Safety contribute funding to deliver these programs each year. 

 

Key areas of focus are as follows:

Child Car Restraints

 Child Car Restraints

Keeping our children safe is a priority for Burwood Council. Through a partnership with the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), Burwood Council is able to offer free child car restraint checks for local residents. The FREE child restraint checks are conducted by RMS Authorised Restraint Fitters to ensure that our youngest residents are correctly secured in car restraints.

The next free Child Restraint Safety Check sessions are listed below with the relevant contact details. Bookings are essential. 

1) Tue 20 October 2020 (10am – 1pm), Burwood RSL Ground Floor Car Park
2) Tue 8 December 2020  (10am – 1pm), Burwood RSL Ground Floor Car Park
3) Tue 23 Feb 2021 (10am – 1pm), Burwood RSL Ground Floor Car Park
4) Tue 27 April 2021 (10am – 1pm), Burwood RSL Ground Floor Car Park

Burwood RSL is located at 96 Shaftesbury Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

For bookings contact  Road Safety Officer chris.johnson@burwood.nsw.gov.au or call 9911 9974.

Under Australian law, children travelling in cars must be secured in an approved restraint. This means children:

  • Younger than 6 months must be secured in a rear-facing restraint
  • 6 months to 4 years must be secured in a rear or forward-facing restraint
  • 4 to 7 years must be secured in a forward-facing restraint or booster seat 
  • Younger than 4 years must travel in the back seat of a vehicle with 2 or more rows.

If you do not live in the Burwood Council area, you can find your nearest RMS approved restraint fitting station at the RMS website

 

Learner Drivers

Learner Drivers

Burwood Council in partnership with the RMS conduct workshops to help parents teach their learner drivers to be safer drivers.

These FREE workshops will teach parents and supervisors how to plan learner driving lessons, use the learner driver log book and give learners constructive feedback. It also gives parents and supervisors an opportunity to share their experiences with each other.

Next Workshop

Time: 6.30pm – 8.30pm

Date: Monday 22 February 2021  

Location: Burwood Council, 2 Conder St, Burwood

 

 

For Bookings contact the Road Safety Officer on chris.johnson@burwood.nsw.gov.au or call 9911 9974

 

 

Pedestrian Safety

Our bodies are fragile. The strongest body cannot withstand the impact of road trauma, even at relatively low speeds. Above 30km/h the risk of death or injury rises rapidly; this risk increases by 400% at just 50km/h. Children are even more vulnerable, so they need to be supervised around roads at all times. People using motorised mobility scooters and electric wheelchairs are considered pedestrians too.

Overview

This campaign was developed to address pedestrian safety issues among older members of the community. The materials developed for this campaign support public awareness initiatives delivered by the Centre for Road Safety.

Local government programs targeting pedestrians, these campaigns are highly localised. They are generally timed around events where we expect lots of pedestrians. These include sporting events and festivals. Awareness programs for seniors are conducted in areas with many elderly residents. These programs help older people understand their greater road safety risk, and refresh their knowledge of the road rules. They also provide advice on the use of pedestrian facilities and mobility aids.

Burwood and Pedestrians

In 2016, the NSW Government has established Towards Zero. This campaign targets pedestrian related offences in Burwood. Throughout this operation, Highway Patrol Police occupy various crossings which see a heavy flow of pedestrian traffic and monitor them while crossing the road. Burwood Highway Patrol have reported that from their two operations which have been carried out in recent weeks, there has been 13 tickets issued worth $72. These tickets were issued for not crossing at an appropriate crossing or crossing while the pedestrian light was red. There are an additional two campaigns scheduled for coming weeks. Police are also issuing education pamphlets to help the CALD communities living, working or playing in Burwood.

This campaign has come given the high number of pedestrian related fatalities. In 2015 Burwood LGA had a total of 168 pedestrian related crashed. Of these, one was fatal, 18 resulted in serious injury, 34 were deemed moderate injury and 47 were minor injuries.

Sadly, in 2016, preliminary data indicates that there have already been two fatal crashes in the Burwood LGA. One which was a pedestrian.

Behavioural issues – facts and figures

In 2009, data showed that pedestrian fatalities were increasing proportionately higher than the rest of the road toll. These statistics provide an overview of pedestrian casualties in metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas of NSW:
  • Pedestrians over 70 years of age account for 33 per cent of pedestrian fatalities
  • During the first five months of 2009, there were 195 deaths on NSW roads – 52 (36 per cent) more than for the same period in 2008
  • Pedestrian fatalities also increased during this five month period – up by 53 per cent, from 19 in 2008 to 29 in 2009

Aims

Desired outcomes of the campaign include:
  • Promote safer crossing practices for older pedestrians – use marked crossings
  • Reduce the number of older pedestrians involved in crashes and fatalities within the target demographic and geographic areas
  • Increase awareness and encourage road users to watch out for pedestrians

What's being done?

Council have introduced several strategies to promote the message surrounding walking safely.
Council's Road Safety Officer hosts presentations throughout the LGA to a wide range of groups. Sessions are tailored to the group's needs, and are a great way of staying updated on pedestrian laws.

Council also works with the Navitas College in Burwood. Here, we to assist in teaching their transport units to non-English speaking residents.

To find out more about these programs, contact Burwood Council's Road Safety Officer on 9911 9974.

Speed Management

How fast are you going now?

Speeding remains the greatest cause of death and injuries on our roads, contributing to about 40 per cent of road fatalities. Statistics from speed-related crashes from 2008 to 2012 showed:

  • About 818 were killed
  • More than 4100 people were injured each year

In 2014, speed accounted for three per cent of crashes in the Burwood LGA, while it was attributed to 12% of crashes across the Sydney region and 18% across wider NSW.

In 2015, crash data revealed that speed accounted for two per cent of crashes in the Burwood LGA and nine per cent of crashes across the wider metropolitan Sydney region. 15% of crashes in NSW were the result of speed.

Burwood Council addresses speed complaints from residents on a regular basis. Annually speed audits are conducted on local roads to ensure that drivers are driving to the speed limit. All local roads in Burwood LGA have a speed limit of 50km/h unless otherwise signposted. The town centre is restricted to 40km/h.

Burwood Council delivers the Go 40 for Me campaign in and around our school zones.

Speed cameras are speed enforcement tools that make drivers slow down and help reduce the road toll. They are located throughout the LGA.

These locations include:  

  1. Railway Parade cross of Burwood Road
  2. The Boulevard, Strathfield (at the entry to Santa Sabina College)
  3. Burwood Road cross of Liverpool Road Enfield
  4.  Burwood Road cross of Parramatta Road

Mobile Speed Cameras are regularly in Burwood LGA as well for additional road safety purposes. Most recently they can be seen on Burwood Road heading towards Liverpool Road in the 50km/h zone.

Safety Around Schools

In NSW, more than one million school students travel to and from school each day. We develop ideas and practical solutions to improve the safety of children during school travel times.

The NSW road safety education program ensures that children and young people learn about road safety at school. It provides resources for students and professional development opportunities for teachers. Our partners in the program are the Association of Independent Schools, Catholic Education Commission, Department of Education and Communities, and the Early Childhood Road Safety Education Program at Macquarie University.

Road safety issues around schools are managed by State and Local Government authorities. The roles and responsibilities of the authorities vary. School principals must also approve any request before the agencies responsible are contacted.

This handbook from Transport for NSW provides you will safety tips which limit congestion around schools and keep students, staff, parents and caregivers safe at all times.

For more information contact Burwood Council's Road Safety Officer on 9911 9974

Park safely in and around schools

Keeping our kids safe in and around school zones is a key safety concern for Burwood Council. Our Road Safety Officer has worked with each of the schools to help protect our vulnerable road users.

There are many people you can contact if you see something could be harmful to children. These include Council's Road Safety Officer, the police or school principal. We are all responsible for the safety of our kids.

Supervision makes sense

The School Crossing Supervisor program is offer state-wide. This program contributes to the safety of infants and primary school students. School crossing supervisors help students use the crossings on roads around schools. School crossing supervisors are provided where schools meet transport authority guidelines and criteria.

School crossing supervisors help to increase mobility and safety around schools. This is done by enhancing the performance of pedestrian traffic facilities. School crossing supervisors provide extra measures to help children move safely and efficiently.

The School Crossing Supervisors program is an important part of the Safety Around Schools program.  

How to apply for a school crossing supervisor

Transport authorities assess sites to determine their eligibility for a school crossing supervisor.
Principals may email their request to SCSSydney@rms.nsw.gov.au. This will ensure that all the relevant information is provided to transport authorities.

Assessment of school crossing supervisor requests

RMS will assess the nominated site against set criteria. For a site to be eligible for a school crossing supervisor it must meet the following criteria:
 
  • The site must have an existing children's crossing, pedestrian crossing (zebra) or combined crossing (children's and zebra)
  • The crossing must be used by infant and/or primary school children
  • The site must be located within a 40km/h school zone.
  • The crossing must be used by a minimum of 50 unaccompanied infant and/or primary school children per hour across a road carrying 300 passenger car units per hour within the morning and afternoon school zone times. Heavy vehicles over three tonnes unladen are counted as two passenger car units.
  • The site must be considered a safe working environment for a school crossing supervisor.
Information above is taken from Transport for NSW

School Zone Enforcement

Burwood Council and Burwood Police work together to ensure all school students are safe in our LGA. All NSW gazetted school zones have a speed limit of 40km/h between 8am-9.30am and 2.30pm and 4pm on gazetted school days.

Penalties for breaches, including parking infringements, exceed the cost of standard penalty notices. This is because children are vulnerable road users, and school zones are much busier during pick up and drop off times.

Burwood Highway Patrol continue school zone enforcement as part of their daily taskings. Penalties are severe and include a loss of demerit points.

Fatigue and Speed Management

Driver fatigue is one of the top three contributors to the road toll. Research has shown that fatigue can be as dangerous as other road safety issues, such as drink driving. But unlike drink driving, there are no laws regulating driver fatigue.Public education campaigns are currently the only way to address driver fatigue for car drivers and motorcyclists.

Did you know?

  • Fatigue is one of the big three killers on NSW roads
  • Fatigue-related crashes are twice as likely to be fatal - drivers who are asleep can't brake
  • In 2012 more people in NSW died in fatigue-related crashes than drink driving crashes
  • Being awake for about 17 hours has a similar effect on performance as a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.05

Thinking about hitting the road? Test how tired you might be before you get behind the wheel, get some tips to help avoid driving tired, and share your results with your friends at testyourtiredself.com.au

Burwood Council's Road Safety Officer can host presentations targeting driver fatigue. This includes information about what is fatigue and it's impact on our roads as well as how to avoid being involved in a fatigue related crash.

The 2015 Crash Statistical Data for the Burwood LGA, listed fatigue as the third major cause of injury crashes. If you would like more information contact Council's road safety officer on 9911 9974.

 

Drivers

Young Drivers

Younger drivers face many challenges when learning the complex task of driving a vehicle. With their inexperience, they also face a higher risk of danger. Despite making up only about 15 per cent of all drivers, younger drivers represent more than a third of annual road fatalities.

In Burwood LGA, young drivers are the leading cause of concern for road safety followed by pedestrians and fatigue.

The Burwood Youth Advisory Group (BYAG) conducted the 2016 Road Safety Launch. This put the spotlight on driver distraction. Young people from across the Inner West asked friends and family to take the pledge to"Get Your Hand Off It". This pledge included a film clip written, acted and filmed by young people themselves. Burwood Council helped by pulling in some celebrity power the strengthen the message. Some of our partners included Matt de Groot from Nova 96.9's Fitzy and Whippa Show, Mark Ferguson from 7News, the Footy Show, players from the Bulldogs NRL side, Mike E and Emma and Jonesy and Amanda from WSFM.

You can watch the clip here

More information about Young Drivers can be found on the Transport for NSW  website.

The Power of Choice

The Power of Choice is a community initiative to help young people make the right choices. This is either while they are behind the wheel, or as a passenger. The program is not intended to intimidate, ridicule, scare or teach young drivers how to drive or what can happen. Instead, it aims to arm them with the common sense and the reality of a potentially poor decision. Adopting the right attitude could help them survive the drive, even as a passenger. They are shown the results of poor decisions, and told how a lapse in common sense could potentially change their life. The presentation runs for about three hours.

The Power of Choice program places students in small groups. This increases their engagement, and helps them to retain more information. Many other road safety programs have larger groups, where students are more likely to become distracted. Power of Choices breaks them into small groups of around 20-30 people.

Power of Choice is a no-cost presentation and has no need for funding. Previously Port Macquarie Crash Investigation Unit has delivered the program, since early 2000s following a spate of fatal crashes. Since the introduction of this program, Port Macquarie has not had a fatal crash.

The program begins with a demonstration by the emergency services.  A dummy is placed behind the wheel of a wrecked car (students have also been used to act out this part). The victim is removed from the vehicle after the cutting and spreading equipment (jaws-of-life) are used in front of all the students.  While the equipment is being used, a commentary is delivered by one of the emergency services personnel to explain what is happening.  The students would also be informed that the ambulance officers would be attending to the victim while they are being cut them the vehicle.

When the victim is cut from the car, they are placed on a stretcher in front of the students as one of the emergency services personnel covers it with a blanket, with the comment, “we don’t always manage to save a crash victim”.  Local wreckers and towing contractors donate a car and their services to deliver a wreck to the school. At the completion of the emergency services presentation, the students are divided into groups.  Each presenter: Police, Local Court Magistrate, Crash survivors, Paramedics, Emergency Services Chaplain (for student counselling if needed), Automotive Professional and a Driver Educator. Twenty minute programs are delivered as the students rotate from room-to-room.  This means each presenter delivers their program to each group.  The continual movement has been effective at keeping the students engaged.

Older Drivers

On the road 65 Plus has advice and safety tips for people in our community aged 65 and over to help make safer choices when driving, riding, walking, using a mobility scooter or catching public transport. 

Our Road Safety Officer conducts road safety sessions for older drivers about what's involved in maintaining your licence once you hit 65. For more information contact Council on 9911 9974 or email

Speed Advisor

Speed Adviser is a smartphone app designed to reduce speeding and save lives. First released in February 2014, Speed Adviser provides free access to accurate speed zone information across the NSW road network
 
  • Accurate speed zone information for NSW roads compiled by us and TomTom
  • Clear speed limit announcements
  • Entering active school zone announcements
  • Spoken and visual warnings when the speed limit is exceeded
  • Speed limit warnings for P2 drivers when they exceed 100km/h
  • Day and night mode

Speed Projects Burwood LGA

Each year Burwood Council's Road Safety Officer produces maps which identify the speed related crashes in Burwood LGA. In 2014 the speed hotspots were Parramatta Road, Burwood Road, George's River Road, Coronation Parade and Railway Parade.

Additionally to mapping out our speed related crashes, Council's Road Safety Officer also monitors streets to ensure that drivers are maintaining the signposted speed limits.

Council ask if you notice a number of vehicles exceeding speed limits in your street to contact the Road Safety Officer so a speed test can be conducted.

**Some information has been adapted from Transport for NSW

 

Riders

Burwood Council's Road Safety Officer endorses the NSW Centre for Road Safety's Ride to Live campaign. This gets to the heart of what keeps motorcyclists safe - making good decisions.

The campaign gives riders useful information about the risks they face on the road, and how they can best manage them. The campaign was developed with support from the Motor Accidents Authority and advice from the main motorcycling bodies in NSW.

The campaign includes ads on TV, radio, billboards, online and on buses, as well as YouTube videos.

In Burwood in 2014, 8% of all accidents on our roads involved a motorcyclist. Council's road safety officer has the following resources available.

Riders are also encouraged to visit the Ride to Live website. Here, they can test their skills, plan their ride from a list of NSW rides.

If you wish to obtain information regarding Motor Cycle safety contact Council's Road Safety Officer on 9911 9974 or email

Events are planned which focus on motorcycle safety, to find out what's coming up, contact Council 9911 9974

**Some information has been adapted from Transport for NSW

Walk Safely to School Day

Burwood Council hosted the national launch event for the 2018 Walk Safely to School Day campaign. In the week before the national Walk Safe day, on May 18, Council arranged walks with five different schools . These schools were Holy Innocents' Primary School, Burwood Public School, Enfield Public School, St Joseph's Catholic Primary School and Croydon Public School. This was in partnership with Burwood Highway Patrol. The annual event encourages primary school children to live healthy and active lifestyles. It also promoted environmentally friendly ways to get to school. The road safety messages of 'Stop. Look. Listen and Think' were also reiterated.

During our launch event at Croydon Public School, over 100 school children and their families met at Blair Park. From there, they walked safely to school with a host of VIP guests. These included politicians, Pedestrian Council of Australia representatives, and personnel from the Centre for Road Safety.

 

Contact Us

Phone

Road Safety Officer 9911 9974

Email

council@burwood.nsw.gov.au

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