One of New Zealand’s largest heavy transport businesses is gearing up to teach Kiwi kids everything they need to know about how to stay safe around trucks, on and off the roads.

Created by Invercargill’s H.W. Richardson Group (HWR), the TruckSafe road safety programme is an interactive, in-depth learning experience packed full of videos, learning tools and collaborative activities for all. 

After a hugely successful launch at Southern Field Days last week, HWR is set to take the programme online to be used as a resource by schools, whānau and their friends. 

Led by animated TruckSafe stars Truck Norris, Rolly and Billy, kids would be given the opportunity to learn everything from how to cross rural roads safely to where a truck’s blind spots were and how to avoid them. 

HWR group general manager marketing and communications Grace Frisby said HWR was always looking at ways to be a leader in health and safety within the industry, and this included a commitment to educating and supporting the community.

“Safety is such a huge part of what we do here at HWR and that focus doesn’t end at our door, it extends out to our community and beyond.”

The TruckSafe programme was designed to instil confidence in children around heavy transport and combat avoidable accidents, many of which had the potential to be fatal.

“Heavy transport fills up so much of our roads and we want to ensure that Kiwi kids are equipped with the knowledge they need to keep themselves and others safe around trucks.’’

“Unfortunately, accidents do happen, but the last thing we want is for lack of awareness around truck safety to be the cause of them.”