Drivers urged to follow SLOMO road rules
A local fire and rescue service has urged drivers to slow down when approaching accidents after an incident on the weekend saw few vehicles reduce their speed.
Baldivis Volunteer Fire and Emergency Services attended an incident where a car was on fire on the Kwinana Freeway last Friday night.
In an online post, a spokesman for the brigade wrote that “while some” remembered to slow down to 40km/h while passing, a “majority” came past at “almost freeway speed” — 100km/h.
Earlier this year, SLOMO (Slow Down, Move Over) laws went into effect, and require motorists to reduce speed to a maximum of 40km/h when passing incident response vehicles with flashing lights and, where possible and safe to do so, move to the next lane.
“We know the new SLOMO laws haven’t been well received in the community, but as volunteers who give up their time willingly for free for their community; jobs on the freeway, or any other major road are a huge risk to us and our membership,” the post read.
“We understand that sometimes, incidents occur on corners and it’s unsafe to slow quickly — tonight, we had machines on a straight of the freeway with kilometres of visibility on approach.”
The spokesman asked drivers to be aware of all the work going on at an incident, and all the people involved, and to “please slow down to 40km/h and move over”.
“It may mean the difference between us going home to our family,” he said.
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