The Man Taking Truck Safety to Young Drivers

The Australian Trucking Association’s (ATA) Safety Truck has been driven by ex-policeman Glen Schmidtke for the past 7 years and has been educating people of all ages around the country on how to safely share the road with trucks.

Mr Schmidtke started washing trucks at the age of 11 and then progressed to an apprentice mechanic before driving trucks. He also spent many years with NSW Highway Patrol developing a passion for road safety which he now uses to spread the safety message.

He began taking the ATA’s Safety Truck to schools around Newcastle while still an officer and after leaving the police, the ATA asked him to help spread the safety message on a larger scale.

Currently the focus of the ATA’s Safety Truck is to target at risk groups, and according to Mr Schmidtke, younger drivers fall into this category. The truck has been designed with the 16 to 25 year old group in mind and he also visits younger children. He says the focus of the campaign for younger children is stop, look and wave.

Find out more https://www.ownerdriver.com.au/industry-news/1706/the-man-taking-truck-safety-to-young-drivers