“Last week advertising rolled out for the ‘If it’s flooded, forget it’ public safety campaign. This important safety messaging was developed by PSBA Media in collaboration with QFES, Transport and Main Roads and Local Government, Education QLD, Department of Premier and Cabinet and other stakeholders.

 

The campaign challenges motorists to have an alternative plan and change their attitudes and behaviours when faced with flooded roads.

 

A comprehensive survey of driver attitudes across Queensland revealed many drivers did not understand the risks when driving into floodwater and they often feel pressured to do so by other drivers or their own strong desire to get home.

 

The message to all drivers, including you and your family members, is to have a Plan B ready long before you find yourself facing a flooded road. Your Plan B should include identifying alternative routes around flooded crossings, knowing the safest options for using the roads while you wait for the water to recede, and making arrangements with your family and friends for collecting the kids from school – your Plan B could mean you stay at work or at home until the weather event has passed. It’s vitally important we all plan ahead when extreme weather is predicted.

 

I encourage you all to visit www.qld.gov.au/floodwatersafety  to find out what factors influence a driver’s behaviour and consider whether you, your family or friends might be vulnerable if faced with a fast changing situation such as flash flooding. While there, take the time to mark flood-prone roads on your family’s regular routes home, plot alternative routes and share this with your family.

 

Please follow these important steps for staying safe during floods:

 

• Never drive, ride or walk through floodwater. Remember any amount of swift flowing water can sweep a car away.
• Speak with your manager about the safest solution for your travel to and from work when extreme weather is predicted.  This might mean staying in your workplace until travel is safe.
• Talk with your children’s school or day care, not just on the day, but well beforehand and find out what their contingencies are.
• Never assume a flooded road is safe to cross, even if you have driven the road a ‘thousand times’.
• Forget what kind of car you drive, no one can predict what is in the water, how it will behave or what’s happened to the road surface underneath.
• Forget the queue of cars behind you, or those that have proceeded before you.

 

Remember, no matter what you drive, the moment you decide to push through, you give up control.

 

If it’s flooded, forget it.”