All Victorian drivers approaching or passing a stationary emergency vehicle must slow to 40km/h, under a newly introduced VicRoads rule.
Under the new rule, a 40 km/h speed limit applies when passing a stationary police vehicle, emergency vehicle, enforcement vehicle or escort vehicle with flashing lights or sounding alarm, including:
- Police vehicles
- Ambulance Victoria vehicles
- Metropolitan Fire Brigade vehicles
- Country Fire Authority vehicles
- Forest Fire Management Victoria vehicles
- State Emergency Service vehicles
- Search and Rescue Services
- VicRoads Transport Safety Service vehicles
- Enforcement vehicles under the control of a state transport body including VicRoads, DEDJTR and Taxi Commission enforcement vehicles
- Other emergency patient transport vehicles with red and blue flashing lights.
Introduced to improve safety for emergency and enforcement workers, the new rule states drivers must slow down when approaching and passing the vehicle, and must not increase their speed until they are a safe distance from the scene, and does not apply to vehicles on the opposite side of a divided road separated by a median strip.
40km/h was designated as the maximum speed at which pedestrians are likely to survive vehicle impact.
Near misses
Incidents on Victorian roads place first responders and others involved at a high risk of being struck by passing vehicles or debris.
Near misses are common, with a survey of more than 1,600 emergency service and enforcement workers revealing that in the past three years:
- 17% had a near miss involving a passing vehicle on four or more occasions
- 3% had been injured while evading a passing vehicle
- 8% had their vehicle struck by a passing vehicle
- 23% of those involved in an incident had consequential mental health issues.
Anyone breaking the new rule is can be fined from $272.05 up to $777.30, with Victoria Police advising that its primary goal is to educate the community about safe speeds around incidents to prevent the death or serious injury of workers and others at the scene.
