New Zealand’s Rail Safety Week turned out to be ‘Rail Safety Two Days’ after Covid-19 re-emerged in the community, causing the cancellation of some major events.
The week got off to a good start with an official launch at Wellington Railway Station on 10 August. More than 100 people attended the event, which was officially launched by Hon Phil Twyford, Minister of Transport.
The theme for Rail Safety Week continued to to raise awareness of ‘near misses’ and the impact of these events on locomotive engineers. The ‘Near Miss Memorials’ campaign once again used the symbol of a half cross, signifying an event that was almost a fatality. These were displayed in poster form around the country.
There was also a nationwide radio and billboard advertising campaign as well as an online/social media campaign.
The social media video received more than half a million views on social media channels. It can be viewed here.
When Covid-19 re-emerged on 11 August, New Zealand’s biggest city Auckland was put back on lockdown. This unfortunately meant that a number of events had to be cancelled, including a big public event and a virtual field trip for schools by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency.
The field trip provided options for teachers and students to engage in a variety of stimulating and meaningful activities about safety on and around the rail corridor, without having to leave their classrooms. This exercise will be continued later in the year.
Note:
TrackSAFE NZ is funded by KiwiRail, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, Transdev Auckland, Transdev Wellington and John Holland. It also receives support in kind from TrackSAFE Australia, Auckland Transport, Greater Wellington Regional Council, NZ Police and other local bodies throughout New Zealand.
TrackSAFE Foundation based in Australia
https://tracksafefoundation.com.au/rail-safety-week/
Rail Safety Week is an annual community awareness week held in Australia and New Zealand designed to engage the community in safe rail practices. “I am #RailSAFE”
TrackSAFE in Australia and New Zealand have been supporting #ILCAD for a decade now. Many Thanks to them.
Megan Drayton, TrackSAFE NZ also gave a very interesting presentation at ILCAD 2020 online conference to launch ILCAD 2020 campaign: www.ilcad.org read the article summarising the event: https://bit.ly/2FrOmMD
https://www.tracksafe.co.nz/
https://www.kiwirail.co.nz/
https://transdev.co.nz/
#KiwiRail
#TrackSAFENZ
#TransdevAustNZ
#RSW2020 #RailSAFE
