Go Traffic drives home the road safety message

ONE of Victoria’s largest traffic management companies has called on the community to join it in helping to keep our roads safe this summer.
Go Traffic managing director Stuart Wickens said the approaching festive season was a timely reminder to stop and think about the impact of road trauma and what we can do to reduce it.
Mr Wickens urged drivers to avoid becoming complacent as the year came to a close by taking care and driving slowly.
“Every year 1200 people are killed and 44,000 are seriously injured on Australian roads,” he said.
“Traffic injury is the biggest killer of Australian children under 15 and the second biggest killer of all Australians aged between 15 and 24.”
The recent National Road Safety Week – held from November 15 to 22 – invited drivers to pledge to play their part in reducing the statistics.
“We would like to help raise awareness and ask everybody to go to roadsafetyweek.com.au and make a pledge ‘to drive so others survive’,” he said.
“Put your mobile phone down and concentrate on the road ahead, particularly when you come to road worksites or see yellow or red and blue flashing lights.
“We are all someone’s family member and we are on the road to make it safer for you to travel where you want to go.”
Mr Wickens said the group was also working on initiatives to help make the road much safer for their employees by trialling new methods of traffic control.
“We are trialling methods to reduce the amount of time our traffic controllers are on the roadway and are using barriers and boom gates to make the job safer,” he explained.
He said another big focus for Go Traffic was improving the economic and social prosperity of local regions and a staff recruitment drive was underway.
“We employ around 500 staff from the regions we operate in and are always looking for more great people to join our team,” Mr Wickens said.
“We provide local procurement opportunities by employing locally and supporting local suppliers.
“Whether you are a young person looking for your first job or a more mature person over the age of 50 with a load of life experiences, we would love to talk to you.”
Mr Wickens said all Go Traffic employees had excellent pathways for advancement throughout the business into administration, supervisor or management roles.
“So many of our employees began in traffic control and have worked their way up,” he said.
“Anyone who is willing to put in a bit of time, to learn and follow instructions, they really can make a career out of it – there are many opportunities.”
The advertised roles are suited to anyone looking for a career change and the necessary qualifications can be obtained through Go Traffic’s training arm, Go Training.
“Our affiliation with Go Training helps to provide a one-stop shop for our customers and anyone looking to get into the traffic management, visitation management or spotting fields,” he said.
“We are lucky to have a great of employees supporting us. Please drive safely through our worksites so that they get to go home to their families each day.”
If you think traffic control is something you would like to do go to gotraffic.com.au/recruitment and apply online. Anyone needing traffic control qualifications should go to Go Training gotrainme.com.au for further information.