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Don’t Be A Domino Safety Campaign

Published: Tue 30 Jul 2002 04:43 PM
30 July 2002
Don’t Be A Domino Safety Campaign
After two successful months, Transit New Zealand and RoadSafe Auckland’s ‘Keep Your Distance - Don’t be a Domino’ motorway safety campaign drew to a close last week. The road safety campaign has seen positive changes in driver behaviour and encouraging feedback from the public according to Transit Regional Manager Wayne McDonald.
“The campaign used the slogan ‘Don’t be a Domino’ to emphasise the importance of keeping a safe following distance while driving on the motorway, and also reminded drivers to keep looking two cars ahead to see what traffic is doing and to manage the space in front of them,” he said. “Its timing was very effective in view of the extremely wet weather Auckland experienced throughout the duration of the campaign.”
The campaign included radio advertising, billboards and on-car-advertising as well as bumper stickers and ‘domino packs’ sent to driving schools and key businesses. During the campaign the five ‘Domino Cars’ - black cars with white spots in a domino pattern - were a vivid reminder to motorists on the motorways to keep their distance.
Senior Sergeant Stewart Kahn of the Auckland Motorway Police agreed that the campaign had had a positive effect on driver behaviour. “The catchy messages in the radio ads and on the billboards helped raise awareness of keeping a safe following distance at a time of year when motorway crashes are traditionally at their highest,” he said.
Around 44% of all crashes on Auckland motorways are rear-end collisions and in the last five years nearly 4,500 rear-end crashes were reported on the motorways.
Martin Dawe, Regional Road Safety Co-ordinator said he had personally noticed positive changes in driver behaviour. “It has been good to see people responding to the message by keeping their distance on the motorway,” he said.
The ‘Don’t be a Domino’ campaign follows on from the successful ‘Merge like a Zip’ safety campaign run by Transit in 2000.
ends

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