The Hunter Valley Bus Crash - a focus on bus safety and reform in Australia Webinar | Thursday 7 November 2024
About this event
This webinar was an informative presentation by John Gaffney on the Hunter Valley Bus Crash which occurred on 11 June 2023 claiming 10 lives and left many with serious lifelong injuries. John has had first hand involvement in the crash, as it occurred following his son’s wedding, and since the crash John has focused his efforts on seeking bus safety reform in Australia. Since the crash considerable progress on bus safety has been realised, particularly in NSW, which other States should consider.
The crash had a devastating impact on the bus occupants, families and friends of those who were on the bus, and first responders (police, paramedics, fire fighters, civilians). The second-round impacts on road infrastructure, the legal system, transport services/providers/users, and local communities will continue to reverberate for years to come.
There has been a spate of recent bus crashes in Australia in recent years, with considerable loss of life and numerous serious injuries. If all vehicles had the same crash outcome as buses the national road deaths would be around 4000 per annum. Bus Safety Reform is urgently needed in Australia, so since the crash John has prepared a Bus Safety Submission with Dr Tony Ockwell, Economic Connections P/L which focuses on bus safety reforms. The submission includes 18 recommendations. John has worked closely with the Federal and NSW Governments, and the Bus Industry Confederation which represents the bus industry in Australia.
Importantly the NSW Government Bus Industry Taskforce extended its “terms of reference” immediately following the crash to include bus safety. The Taskforce has produced a comprehensive report identifying a raft of critical reforms which includes the 18 reforms from John’s submission. A dedicated team is now delivering the package of reforms in NSW. Further reforms are expected when the NSW, Office of Transport Safety Investigation, and the NSW Coroner release their independent reports some time down the track.
The presentation will covered some of these reforms and will challenge our thinking, and the strategic direction required for making road transport safer for all Australians.
Resources
View On - Demand
Speaker
John Gaffney
Focusing efforts on bus safety, bus design standards and bus safety systems.
John Gaffney is a transportation engineer with over 40-years’ public sector experience in planning, modelling, traffic engineering, road design, road safety, which included developing VicRoads and Austroads’ policies, standards and guidelines. During his career John was involved in planning and business case development, motorway design and delivery of many Victorian motorway projects.
John is a recognised specialist in motorway design, traffic operations, and network optimisation having served as the “Specialist Engineer - Managed Motorways and Network Optimisation”.at the Department of Transport and Planning in Victoria before his retirement in April 2023. John has previously held the position Principal Traffic Engineer at VicRoads.
During the early 1990’s John was Assistant Director Austroads, where he was involved in heavy vehicle reform, and traffic engineering practice. John has also work at Australian Road Research Board (now National Transport Research Organisation) where he was involved in Managed Motorway planning, design and training.
John is a recognised expert in systems engineering and intelligent transports systems having conceived the potential use of control engineering to enhance motorway safety and efficiency. He then developed the business case for, and delivered the first Australian Managed Motorway Project. John is widely recognised as being a world leader in his field(s) and his work is widely published in peer reviewed technical journals including 7 papers published in the Australian Journal of Road Safety.
AITPM members and collegues who registered to join the webinar included:
Organisation | State |
---|---|
HDR | QLD |
Department of Transport and Planning | (no answer selected) |
Brisbane City Council | QLD |
VLC | VIC |
Sydney Metro | NSW |
City of Ryde | NSW |
Matrix Traffic and Transport Data | NSW |
Stantec | VIC |
Transport for New South Wales | NSW |
Yarra Ranges Council | VIC |
TMR | QLD |
Austraffic | VIC |
Amber Organisation | VIC |
Suburban Rail Loop Authority | VIC |
Main Roads WA | WA |
Department of Transport and Main Roads | QLD |
NTRO | VIC |
SIDRA SOLUTIONS | VIC |
WSP Australia | NSW |
PSA Consulting | QLD |
Arcadis | VIC |
WGAVIC Pty Ltd | VIC |
PTT | QLD |
Bild Group | VIC |
Solutions for Traffic And Road Safety | VIC |
Veitch Lister Consulting | VIC |
Amber Organisation | VIC |
Brisbane City Council | QLD |
Be Engineering Solutions Pty Ltd | SA |
rebecca.chase@transport.vic.gov.au | VIC |
Arcadis Australia Pacific | VIC |
Department of Transport (VIC) | VIC |
Contractor | QLD |
GHD | VIC |
Jacobs | QLD |
Brisbane City Council | QLD |
Major Road Projects Victoria | VIC |
Bitzios Consulting | QLD |
Boroondara City Council | VIC |
Hume City Council | VIC |
Brisbane City Council | QLD |
Tonkin | SA |
Public Transport Authority | WA |
Mott MacDonald | VIC |
Traffix | NSW |
TRAFFIX | NSW |
MRPV | (no answer selected) |
O'Brien Traffic | VIC |
University of Sydney | NSW |
Tour Coach Services | QLD |
Urbis | NSW |
Traffix Group Pty Ltd | VIC |
City of Moreton Bay | QLD |
Bitzios Consulting | QLD |
Wyndham City Council | VIC |
SCT Consulting | NSW |
Transport for NSW | NSW |
PTT | QLD |
TMR | QLD |
Arcadis | VIC |
Transport for NSW | NSW |
City of Moreton Bay | QLD |
NTRO | VIC |
One Mile Grid | VIC |
Mott MacDonald | QLD |
Geleon | QLD |
Ratio Consultants | VIC |
City of Glen Eira | VIC |
Retired - VicRoads | VIC |
Lambert & Rehbein (SEQ) Pty Ltd | QLD |
WSP | WA |
Veitch Lister Consulting | VIC |
Department of Transport and Main Roads | QLD |
WSP Australia | VIC |
Maroondah City Council | VIC |
Urbis | VIC |
Industrial Logistics Institute | VIC |
Maroondah City Council | VIC |
The University of Queensland | QLD |
PTT Pekol Traffic & Transport | QLD |
WGA | VIC |
Brisbane City Council | QLD |
GHD | QLD |
P7Safety | WA |
AECOM | NSW |
SITE Traffic | QLD |
Transport for NSW | NSW |
Pekol Traffic and Transport | QLD |
WSP Australia | QLD |
Department of Transport and Planning | VIC |
Aurecon | VIC |
City of Boroondara | VIC |
SmedTech | VIC |
Wyndham City Council | VIC |
Matrix Traffic and Transport Data | NSW |
Transport for NSW | NSW |
Colliers International Engineering & Design (TTMC) Pty Ltd | QLD |
City of Greater Geelong | VIC |
Compass IoT | NSW |
AITPM | VIC |
Stantec | QLD |
ACT Road Safety Board | ACT |
Australian Institute of Traffic Planning and Management | QLD |
WSP Australia | VIC |
Matrix Traffic and Transport Data | NSW |
Bitzios Consulting | QLD |
City of Cockburn | WA |
John Lambert and Associates Pty Ltd | VIC |
VLC | VIC |
Department of Transport and Main Roads Queensland | QLD |
Aurecon | NZ - North Island |
WSP Australia | SA |
AECOM | NSW |
VLC | VIC |
Stantec | VIC |
Transit Systems | QLD |
MFY Pty Ltd | SA |
Department of Transport and Planning | (no answer selected) |
WSP Australia | VIC |
pitt&sherry | TAS |
Brisbane City Council | QLD |
Aurecon | QLD |
Jacobs | QLD |
WSP Australia | QLD |
Matrix Traffic and Transport Data | NSW |
cxmars@cgd.vic.gov.au | VIC |
Acuitas Technica | NSW |
Safe System Solutions | VIC |
Department for Infrastructure and Transport | SA |
WSP Australia | VIC |
Transport for NSW | NSW |
HDS Australia | SA |
Movement & Place consulting | VIC |
ACT Government | VIC |
City of Moreton Bay | QLD |
VLC | QLD |
Department of Transport & Planning (DTP) | VIC |
PSA Consulting | QLD |
Traffix Group | VIC |
Clarence City Council | TAS |
PJA | WA |
Traffic & Road Safety Engineer | VIC |
Traffic Engineering & Management | NZ - North Island |
RAA of SA Inc | SA |
TRAFFINITY | VIC |
Transport for NSW | NSW |
Trafficworks Pty Ltd | VIC |
Monash University | VIC |
Transport for NSW | NSW |
AL SARH HOLDING GROUP | VIC |
Traffix Group | VIC |
Independent | VIC |
Ratio Consultants | VIC |
Brisbane City Council | QLD |
Traffix Group | VIC |
Brisbane City Council | QLD |
O'Brien Traffic | VIC |
City of Melbourne | VIC |
Amber Organisation | VIC |
Infrastructure Victoria | VIC |
Urbis | VIC |
Brisbane City Council | QLD |
trafficworks.com.au | VIC |
Department of Transport and Main Roads Queensland | QLD |
PSA Consulting | QLD |
Independent | VIC |
HDS Australia Pty Ltd | VIC |
O'Brien Traffic | VIC |
Brisbane Airport | QLD |
Brisbane City Council | QLD |
Rytenskild Traffic Engineering | QLD |
City of Whittlesea | VIC |
VLC | VIC |
Trafficworks | VIC |
GHD | SA |
Trafficworks | VIC |
Department of Transport and Main Roads | QLD |
AECOM | QLD |
Bitzios Consulting | QLD |
SCT Consulting | NSW |
West Gate Tunnel Project | VIC |
Colliers International Engineering & Design (TTMC) Pty Ltd | QLD |
City of Tea Tree Gully | SA |
Amber community | VIC |
Bicycling/Walking Advocate | QLD |
Traffix Group | VIC |
Stantec Australia Pty Ltd | VIC |
Jacobs | QLD |
Aurecon Group | VIC |
PSA Consulting | QLD |
Wendy Taylor | VIC |
Traffix Group | VIC |
ACT Government Transport Canberra City Services (TCCS) | NSW |
City of Monash | VIC |
AECOM | QLD |
City of Boroondara | VIC |
One Mile Grid | VIC |
KV Traffic Engineering | NSW |
Jacobs | QLD |
Transport and Main Roads | QLD |
PTT | QLD |
City of Playford | SA |
WSP Australia | QLD |
MidCoast Council | NSW |
City of Onkaparinga | SA |
mark.wolstenholme@transport.nsw.gov.au | NSW |
Transport for NSW | NSW |
Translink, TMR | QLD |
Main Roads WA | WA |
Matrix Traffic and Transport Data | NSW |
AECOM | SA |
Department for Infrastructure and Transport | SA |
MRPV | VIC |
City of Moreton Bay | QLD |
HDR | QLD |
xin.zou1@monash.edu | VIC |