Safety Warning Systems

Learn about the newest road safety system to come out of the USA. This system is being submitted by ADRA to WA & NZ authorities for testing and evaluation. Read about the Safety Warning System and how it can save your life and make driving safer.

Safety Warning Systems (SWS) WA Locations

SWS transmitter locations as of 1st January 2008:  117

Warning: Emergency Vehicle in Transit/Stationary Emergency Vehicle ahead    88
St John Emergency Ambulance                   
Advance Life Ambulance                            
WA Fire Service                                            

Warning: Highway Work Crews Ahead   21
WA road Projects/Leighton Contracts       
Carringtons Traffic Services                         
ATM Bellevue                                               

WA Blackspots                                           8
Warning: Speed Limit Enforced /Rest Stop Ahead
Mount Lawley, Intersection Walcott Street & Beaufort Street,
Mirrabooka, Intersection Reid Highway & Alexander Drive,
Victoria Park,  intersection Canning Highway & Berwick Street,
Bayswater, Intersection of Tonkin Highway & Collier Road,
Bunbury North on Mandurah Rd
Williams (Albany Hwy)
Byford,South West Hwy & Thomas Rd
Pinjarra, Cnr South West Hwy & Morrell Rd

Safety Warning Systems in Western Australia

The Safety Warning System ("SWS") is currently being used in Western Australia by various bodies including FESA, St John Ambulance Service, Ambulance Australia, Carringtons Traffice Services, Quality Traffice Management Pty Ltd, ATM Bellevue and various tow truck operators.

The SWS will warn drivers of “Emergency Vehicle in Transit” and “Stationary Emergency Vehicle Ahead”.

Any Driver Warning System or radar detector up to 1 kilometre away will receive this warning. This warning could save a life, particularly for an emergency vehicle positioned over a rise or around a blind corner. It should also lead to quicker access to an emergency at the reduced risk to the driving public by warning drivers up to 1 km away of an approaching emergency vehicle.

This would not only protect the driver and passengers of a vehicle fitted with a Driver Warning System or a radar detector, but also the drivers and passengers of the vehicles travelling behind as they are forced to travel at the speed of the vehicle in front. The life of an emergency worker could also be saved.

Like the USA and New Zealand, we hope to see the use of these life saving devices extended to all emergency vehicles and to road maintenance workers in Western Australia. Given the failure of other road safety initiatives in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, the use of the SWS should be considered in these states.

Further applications of the system include railway crossings, road trains, other hazardous vehicles, road hazards and accidents. With widespread use, it would only be a matter of time before vehicles come equipped with an inbuilt Driver Warning System.

Tragedies such as the following stories could have been averted with the use of SWS:
By Cian Manton and Luke Eliot
The West Australian, January 27, 2003.


A VOLUNTEER firefighter was killed when three fire appliances crashed as a massive blaze threatened homes between Ledge Point and Lancelin yesterday.

The 32-year-old man, who was an Ocean Farm volunteer bush fire brigade member, died in hospital a short time after the crash - the first victim of WA's bushfire season.

Last night, firefighters were working frantically to control the fire, which was fanned by strong winds, as it raced towards Lancelin. Many residents were evacuated to the primary school oval and water and power supplies to the town were cut.

Fire surrounded Ledge Point yesterday morning, threatening properties in Seaview, an estate north of the townsite, forcing residents to evacuate.

The blaze then pushed north in the afternoon and police rushed to evacuate the township of Nilgen, before firefighters concentrated their efforts at Lancelin.

Four firefighters, including three volunteers, were injured in the afternoon when two fire tankers and a four-wheel-drive reconnaissance vehicle collided on the corner of KW and Lancelin roads in Ledge Point, sending one tanker rolling down an embankment.

All were taken to Joondalup Health Campus, where the Ocean Farm volunteer later died. Police are investigating the crash.

More than 100 firefighters fought the blaze.

Fire & Emergency Services Authority spokesman Murray Bawden said the crash was distressing for all firefighters.

"Now they have actually become casualties themselves while they were trying to assist other people," he said.

Alan and Nola Armstrong, of Wanneroo, were at their Seaview holiday house when they noticed the fire early in the morning. They started hosing it down but had to evacuate as the flames drew closer.

"A volunteer firefighter gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder and said 'don't worry, we will look after your house'," Mrs Armstrong said. "And they did. They were fantastic."

All houses in Seaview were saved.

Firefighters threw all their aerial resources at the blaze, sending in two helitankers to back up the fixed-wing water bombers but could not contain the fire.

Their efforts were hampered when an emergency services communications tower was lost to the flames.

In Karragullen, a wildfire was contained after burning out 60ha of bush east of Roleystone. The fire forced the closure of a section of Brookton Highway.