LSM BridgeSense® (TrainSense®) Safety Innovations- pontential to save Australians lives + $billions
Recently, an over-height vehicle carrying a wind turbine generator blade collided with the Mount Crosby Road overpass on the Warrego Highway (ABC News), causing extensive damage and traffic disruption. This incident once again highlights the urgent need for proactive, in-vehicle safety systems like our LSM BridgeSense® technology. The costs associated with this single bridge strike are expected to reach multiple millions of dollars in direct infrastructure repairs- plus further economic and social costs from long-term disruption.
Based on BITRE (Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics) modelling, traffic congestion costs alone for this highway incident could exceed $2 million per day, or $15–$20 million per week. Reports are that it will take 12 months to repair and so if partial or full closure of this major freight corridor continues then the estimated cost could be >$1.0 billion - from this single bridge strike.
This figure does not account for additional losses such as:
- Business and freight delays.
- Emergency response and enforcement.
- Infrastructure assessment and repair costs.
- Public safety risks and reduced emergency access.
- A National Challenge with Local Impact.
BTRE reports that traffic congestion costs the Australian economy $19 billion annually (2020), with this figure projected to rise to $40 billion by 2031- an obvious reflection that there is a lack of effective mitigation technologies coming in the future. In Queensland alone, there are nearly 400 over-height bridge / sacrificial structure strikes every year, with some locations repeatedly impacted.
Without modern solutions, these numbers are expected to rise - along with economic losses and safety risks for all road users, as depicted in the BITRE projections.
LSM Technologies Call for Action:
As you will derive from the links below and other news articles on our website - even with strong industry support and multiple letters of endorsement, we have not yet received the necessary funding or project evaluation to complete a Proof of Concept- even though the entire development cost would represent (a very) small fraction of the financial loss from a single bridge strike.
LSM Technologies has been actively engaging for >18 months with government agencies, regulators, and freight industry stakeholders to develop and trial our:
- LSM BridgeSense®- to prevent over- height vehicle impacts.
- LSM TrainSense®- to reduce collisions at rail level crossings.
Given the substantial investment, regulatory control, and ownership that the Australian Government holds over the nation's rail and road networks, it is both logical and necessary that public funding be allocated towards critical safety innovations.
