Better education vs better warnings.
On the morning of May 21st 2009, an impatient motorist crashed into boomgates at a level crossing in the northern suburbs of Brisbane, causing widespread delays for morning train commuters and putting lives at risk, according to Queensland Rail.
QR Network General Manager South East Queensland, Robert Moffat, said of the incident, "Fortunately no-one was hurt but thousands of passengers on the Caboolture and Nambour lines were delayed for up to 30 minutes."
In a May 21 Media Release received from QR, Mr Moffat is also reported as commenting that, "The impatience of some motorists is mind-boggling. Despite our education campaigns and widespread publicity about recent fatalities in level crossing incidents, some people just don't seem to get it."
The underlying message, that education is only PART of the solution, is one we hear repeatedly from road and rail authorities. People forget, get distracted, forget what they're doing, haven't had enough sleep...whatever the reason, the fact remains that even with educational programs, the very best warnings are those delivered at or before a danger condition...to remind them what it was they were told in an earlier campaign..... that often isn't remembered at 7am on the way to work!
The warnings that very obviously convey a warning to motorists, pedestrians and train drivers to SLOW DOWN AND STOP, even if they're distracted or not really paying attention to what's going on around them, are the most effective warnings.
And SafeZone delivers these warnings clearly and repeatedly, in advance of, and right up to, the point of danger, to provide the advance warning required to give people enough time to register what's going on and take corrective action. Even those drivers whose morning coffee hasn't kicked in, or who are distracted by others in their vehicle or by a phone, are more likely to have their attention grabbed by SafeZone right at the time and place it really matters: BEFORE they have a chance to become another statistic!
