New signs on Leach Highway for truck drivers

25/9/95

Main Roads has started erecting signs along Leach Highway advising truck drivers to use the left or centre lanes in order to improve road safety and traffic efficiency.

Transport Minister Eric Charlton said Leach Highway was a major metropolitan commuter route carrying a mixture of small vehicles and heavy vehicles.

On the three-lane carriageways between Carrington Road and Manning Road, the signs will read: "Trucks Please Use Left Or Centre Lane". The road surface will be marked to remind truck drivers to use the centre lane.

On the two-lane carriageways between Manning Road and Tonkin Highway, the signs will read: "Trucks Please Use Left Lane".

Mr Charlton said motorists would no longer feel frustrated behind trucks that might be travelling two or three abreast, or were slowing down very early when approaching traffic lights.

Main Roads survey figures showed that the majority of truck drivers observed normal road courtesies and kept to the left. The study indicated that sections of Leach Highway were carrying up to 52,000 vehicles a day, of which about seven percent were heavy trucks.

Mr Charlton said driver frustrations about the lack of passing opportunities were a primary cause of risk-taking on Western Australian roads which might lead to accidents.

"The figures also show that at some stages, as many as one third of the heavy vehicles on Leach Highway at any one time were travelling in the median lane," the Minister said.

The signs would be placed at two kilometre intervals along the entire length of Leach Highway.

Mr Charlton said the trucking industry supported the courtesy signs along Leach Highway, which should make motoring more pleasant for everyone using the route.

Media contact:  Ian Hasleby 321 7333