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Speaker 1: But firstly to the corner on the Southeastern Freeway, Glen

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Speaker 1: Osman Road, Crossroad and Port Rush Road. There where a truck,

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Speaker 1: the latest in a series of trucks, came down the

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Speaker 1: hill and fortunately at that time of the morning no

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Speaker 1: traffic around, but he's gone straight into the wall where

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Speaker 1: the fountain is right opposite the intersection on the way down.

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Speaker 1: The proposal is because a couple of trucks have done

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Speaker 1: that now two or three, and traffic that comes up

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Speaker 1: crossroad towards that intersection is going to stop one hundred

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Speaker 1: meters back, so in case a truck is coming down,

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Speaker 1: and the in case also relies on that crossroad traffic

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Speaker 1: in both directions not having a green light at the time.

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Speaker 1: So for about fifty percent of the time this will work,

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Speaker 1: so hopefully trucks can time it right. But if a

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Speaker 1: truck does come down and hasn't hit it in the

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Speaker 1: rest a bed, well it's going to hit the wall.

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Speaker 1: At least there won't be cars waiting for a green

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Speaker 1: light at that point, is the thinking. And to me

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Speaker 1: that seems to miss the point because instead of an

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Speaker 1: arrest of bed, that wall becomes the arresta bed. I

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Speaker 1: don't think we want the truck to get into the

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Speaker 1: intersection full stop. I suppose from a safety point of view,

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Speaker 1: this is okay, but only for half the time while

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Speaker 1: they don't have the green light heading in that direction.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about this with Steve Sheer SA Road Transport Association. Steve,

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Speaker 1: good morning, Thanks for your.

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Speaker 2: Time, no problem, How are you good.

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Speaker 1: What do you make of this idea?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's an idea that came out of very comprehensive

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Speaker 2: discussions involving a lot of people, including the RAA, safety

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Speaker 2: experts from adelaide UNI, the trucking industry, including us, the Minister,

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Speaker 2: his engineers, the police. We discussed all sorts of issues

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Speaker 2: about why these incidents occur. And let's just clarify that

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Speaker 2: there's been some comments made this morning that aren't right.

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Speaker 2: Most of the time, it is not a matter of

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Speaker 2: a truck being unroadworthy or not property serviced sometimes but

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Speaker 2: quite rarely. The main issue is driver error, where a

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Speaker 2: driver fails to put the truck. And this is a

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Speaker 2: very small percentage of truck drivers, but that's really irrelevant

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Speaker 2: because one is too many. But if they put the

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Speaker 2: truck in the wrong gear and don't put the engine

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Speaker 2: brake on for the load they're carrying. They'll start traveling

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Speaker 2: too fast, they won't be able to get it back

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Speaker 2: into the appropriate gear. They start riding their foot brake

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Speaker 2: and they cook them after they've gone past the first

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Speaker 2: arrest of bed, making that arrested bed pretty much useless

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Speaker 2: and they've got no brakes left when they come to

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Speaker 2: the second arrest of bed. If it's their first time

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Speaker 2: down the kill, and often it is, it's not drivers

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Speaker 2: who are familiar with the road. They see the road

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Speaker 2: level out and they think, oh, I'm going to be

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Speaker 2: how to pull this up. So some of them, we believe,

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Speaker 2: decide not to use the arrested bed when they then

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Speaker 2: well should and they continue and then discover to their

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Speaker 2: horror that the road drops away again. So they fund

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Speaker 2: themselves down the bottom with no brakes through their own error.

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Speaker 2: They've got no brakes and they've got nowhere to go.

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Speaker 2: So one of the suggestions that we put up was

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Speaker 2: can we use the traffic Management Center and its ability

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Speaker 2: to observe the traffic. Its cameras can detect truck speed

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Speaker 2: and the fact that it's a truck, no car. They

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Speaker 2: can make a decision, press a big red button and

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Speaker 2: clear all the traffic from the intersection. That got looked

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Speaker 2: at very thoroughly, and although it was a good idea,

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Speaker 2: it looked like it might not really work as well

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Speaker 2: as we would all hope. But out of that came

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Speaker 2: the suggestion of moving the cars out of that high

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Speaker 2: risk zone. And what you just said is right. We

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Speaker 2: don't actually want any trucks getting through the intersection, but

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Speaker 2: if they do, it's better not to have cars sitting

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Speaker 2: there and waiting. On Wednesday this week, I spoke to

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Speaker 2: the CEO of the department to check where everything was

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Speaker 2: up to before I spoke with the media, and it

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Speaker 2: was pretty clear that they got the money for Southeast

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Speaker 2: Freeway upgrade, including this on Tuesday night, and the planning

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Speaker 2: was well advanced and he expected the works to be

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Speaker 2: completed by late this year or early next year, which

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Speaker 2: is great. And the other issue of the third or

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Speaker 2: rested bed, which we're still very keen on, we discussed

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Speaker 2: and the reality is even with a third arrest of bed,

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Speaker 2: it's not one hundred percent guarantee because the truck driver

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Speaker 2: may not go to get into the third arrest of

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Speaker 2: bed if there are too many cars in the way,

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Speaker 2: and that's the reality of the freeway. So it's really

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Speaker 2: a matter of having multiple solutions, and we think the

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Speaker 2: third arrested bed needs to be part of that if

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Speaker 2: it's possible. Now it's not done deal because they're still

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Speaker 2: trying to work out whether or not one can be

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Speaker 2: built back. Has a high prospect of working, albeit not

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Speaker 2: one hundred percent. But concerningly, we've now got a bit

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Speaker 2: of a mixed message coming from government because Minister kots

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Speaker 2: Andtonis has been on the radio today as well and

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Speaker 2: indicated that he supports the idea of moving cars on

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Speaker 2: motorists on crossroad out of a risk zone, but he

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Speaker 2: indicated that it's not yet a done deal, which is

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Speaker 2: not what I was told on Wednesday. So you know,

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Speaker 2: we're looking for some clarification about that that what you

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Speaker 2: said is right, but we've got to be realistic. The fact.

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Speaker 2: First fact is that trucks will keep coming down the

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Speaker 2: freeway because over forty percent of the local Adelaide Hills

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Speaker 2: trucks and they're not going to go back to murray

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Speaker 2: Bridge and go left. Cost of living would go too

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Speaker 2: high in Barker if that happened, So trucks are going

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Speaker 2: to keep coming. Most of the trucks that have had

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Speaker 2: incidents are actually at lade hills, local trucks, not b

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Speaker 2: doubles from interstates. Some have been, but most aren't. Thirdly,

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Speaker 2: sometimes we get truck drivers who are coming down the

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Speaker 2: hill for the first time, so they don't know the road,

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Speaker 2: they don't know that it continues to fall away after

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Speaker 2: that second arrest a bed, and they might make the

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Speaker 2: wrong choice. None of them have ever done it twice,

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Speaker 2: so they're faced for the first time in their life

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Speaker 2: the experience of the pretty frightening experiences being in a

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Speaker 2: truck that they're losing control of and an arrest of

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Speaker 2: bed might not seem all that like a good idea

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Speaker 2: to them because they've never done it before, but they

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Speaker 2: do work brilliantly. So I've got a whole bunch of

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Speaker 2: human factors in here, and in any walk of life,

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Speaker 2: you've got to consider all of that and do what

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Speaker 2: you reasonably can do. And we think that includes moving

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Speaker 2: the traffic back on crossroad, changing the light signaling, which

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Speaker 2: we know they're working on and we believe as well advanced,

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Speaker 2: and trying really hard to put a third or reciped

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Speaker 2: in if it can't be done it can't be done.

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Speaker 1: I think, Look, the light's idea has merit, but only

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Speaker 1: when the lights are red, but the rest of the time,

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Speaker 1: when they're green, if a truck's coming down, I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's fifty to fifty, is this, Yes, that's right.

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Speaker 2: No, you're dead right about that. And because there's no

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Speaker 2: realistic alternative of not having trucks on the road, that's

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Speaker 2: a very good part of the argument about why we

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Speaker 2: have to consider the possibility. And in a way, it

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Speaker 2: doesn't matter whether it's a faulty truck or a driver error.

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Speaker 2: The fact is it's a truck, and you've got to

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Speaker 2: look at what you can do as far as reasonably

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Speaker 2: practical to make it safe. And we believe a third

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Speaker 2: arrest of bed is part of that. We know it's

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Speaker 2: going to cost money, but in our if you it

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Speaker 2: will save lives. It won't always work, but it's better

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Speaker 2: than not having it. But governments have to make decisions

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Speaker 2: about that.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, it almost has to be on the left only

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Speaker 1: from a space point of view, I guess you could

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Speaker 1: manufacture a situation where it ends up in the middle,

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Speaker 1: and maybe you need both, but certainly on the left

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Speaker 1: somewhere there's got to be an arresta bed just around

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Speaker 1: the corner by the toll gate where drivers, as you say,

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Speaker 1: you know, they think they've leveled out coming down past

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Speaker 1: Mount Osmond and it seems to be flat again. Maybe

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Speaker 1: we just need better signage. I mean, even what you've

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Speaker 1: been saying about drivers coming down from the first time.

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Speaker 1: Surely truckies talk to each other, and surely all the

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Speaker 1: signage that's there from crafers and before crafers warning them

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Speaker 1: steep the center ahead, and you know, braakes need to

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Speaker 1: be here, et cetera. Do they not see that? How

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Speaker 1: can they be unaware?

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Speaker 2: Well, it looked. They're perfectly valid questions. But there's an

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Speaker 2: a behind all of that, and that is that you're

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Speaker 2: talking about somebody who's been sensible, reasonable, responsible and attentive.

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Speaker 2: And I was coming back from two wells yesterday after

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Speaker 2: a meeting, and I came into from one hundred kilometer

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Speaker 2: zone into a sixty zone, and I was whirling to

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Speaker 2: the sixty zone and I had motorists flying past me.

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Speaker 2: They saw the signs. But there are plenty of signs

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Speaker 2: on the Southeastern Treeway. The reality is we're talking about

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Speaker 2: a point one percent of drivers getting it wrong, right,

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Speaker 2: So it's not the road, it's not the signage, it's

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Speaker 2: not really the training. We try to improve the training.

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Speaker 2: But if those things were such a significant issue, you

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Speaker 2: wouldn't have such a miniscule percentage of drivers getting it wrong.

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Speaker 2: You'd have a lot more.

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Speaker 1: Any ideas, Steve, how many trucks come down?

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Speaker 2: Six hundred and sixty thousand trucks a year a year?

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Speaker 1: Wow, it really is only very few. Obviously, as you're

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Speaker 1: saying that everyone has one too.

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Speaker 2: Many, Well, absolutely everyone is one too many, which is

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Speaker 2: why put it this way. If you're in business, and

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Speaker 2: let's say you've got a factory and you make stuff.

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Speaker 2: The fact that the people in your factory do the

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Speaker 2: safe follow the safe procedure ninety nine or ninety nine

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Speaker 2: point nine percent of the time, and they don't put

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Speaker 2: their hand in that place where they shouldn't put it

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Speaker 2: because it'll get cut off yours, you are still obliged

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Speaker 2: under the law to recognize that risk and put a

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Speaker 2: safety guard there, and if you don't, you go to jail.

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Speaker 1: Exactly.

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Speaker 2: Well, this is the same thing. It's just that it's government.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Steve, thank you so much for your

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Speaker 1: time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you my pleasure.

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Speaker 1: Steve Shearer SA Road Transport Association,