Following a bus safety roundtable with federal ministers in late August, the Bus Industry Confederation (BIC) has released a safety initiatives paper to tackle challenges in the industry.
On August 28, BIC presented the paper at the roundtable hosted by senator Carol Brown.
The paper provides eight key recommendations to further enhance bus safety, centring on the vehicle, passenger and other road users.
The paper broadly captures three main outcomes, calling for an uptake of new technologies, an education of the community about bus safety through national campaigns and enhancing the ability to background check drivers.
Key recommendations include adopting event data loggers for investigations purposes to align with European regulations and adopting intelligent speed assist systems into new vehicles in alignment with European regulations.
The paper also calls for a fast-tracking o vehicle replacement programs that incorporate new technology such as electronic stability control, lane departure warning and autonomous emergency braking.
The paper mentions implementing a national harmonised approach to bus safety awareness aimed at both educating schools and the general public, as well as reviewing ADR 68 to clearly state seat belt requirements and removing anomalies such as removing standees on buses equipped with seat belts and increasing warning devices to see uptake in seat belt usage.
Finally, the paper is investigating the feasibility of introducing seat belts on new route service buses, reviewing the level of obtainable information for driver employment checks and continuing driver fatigue reforms through law reviews and checking out driver fatigue monitoring systems.