Driving tired
All Queensland motorists need to wake up to the warning signs of fatigue. These include:
- yawning
- heavy eyes
- blurred vision
- reduced concentration.
If you experience these signs pull over to a safe place to rest or swap drivers and avoid driving tired.
Fatigue is not seen as a ‘big killer’ on our roads by some, but fatigue can be experienced by anyone anytime — on both long and short trips. Fatigue is as dangerous as speeding and drink driving — getting behind the wheel after 17 hours without sleep has the same effect on a person’s driving as having a blood alcohol level of 0.05 (Transport Accident Commission, Victoria, 2009). In 2008, fatigue contributed to 44 deaths on Queensland roads (approximately 13 percent of the road toll). This is 21 deaths less than in 2007 but three deaths more than in 2006.
Current campaign
The current fatigue public education campaign launched in September 2009. The primary audience for this campaign is men due to their over-representation in fatigue-related crashes. The campaign urges drivers experiencing fatigue to swap drivers or pull over.
The same reasons motivating tired drivers to keep driving, like getting home to loved ones, are the very reasons they should stop and rest. This campaign includes 30 and 15 second television advertisements aired in metropolitan and regional locations, outdoor billboards placed in high fatigue crash zones and a 45 second radio advertisement which provides an in-vehicle reminder of the signs of fatigue and techniques to avoid driving tired.
For more information about this campaign, download the public education campaign summary (PDF**, 84KB).Current advertisements
Television advertisement 'Lone driver' (30-sec — rated G)
View the 'Lone driver' (30-sec) television advertisement — rated G (MPG#, 5.5MB)
Download the transcript for the 'Lone driver' (30-sec) television advertisement (PDF**, 28.2KB)
Download the screening times (PDF**, 28.5KB)
Television advertisement 'Lone driver' (15-sec — rated G)
View the 'Lone driver' (15-sec) television advertisement — rated G (MPG#, 2.6MB)
Download the transcript for the 'Lone driver' (15-sec) television advertisement (PDF**, 15KB)
Download the screening times (PDF**, 28.5KB)
Outdoor advertisement 'Mate'
Outdoor advertisement 'Sore eyes'
Radio advertisement 'Roadworthy'
Download the 'Roadworthy' radio advertisement (MP3#, 1.8MB)Download the transcript for the 'Roadworthy' radio advertisement (PDF**, 15KB)
Previous campaigns
Television advertisement 'Micro sleeps' (2004-07)
View the 'Micro sleeps' television advertisement — rated W (MPG#, 5.28MB)
Radio advertisement 'Snoring'
Download the 'Snoring' radio advertisement (MP3#, 700KB)
Downloads
More campaigns
**While this department has taken every possible precaution with the creation of these files, they are downloaded and used at your own risk. Adobe Reader is needed to open and print Portable Document Format (PDF) files and is free to download from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Various tools to enable access to these files for people using a screen reader can be found at http://access.adobe.com. Further information is available from the "Help with downloading, reading and printing PDF".
#While this department has taken every possible precaution with the creation of these files they are downloaded and used at your own risk. If you do not have software that can play video/sound files, download QuickTime or Windows Media Player. These sites will open in a new window.
Last updated 22 September 2009
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