Drivers in the state of Victoria will be required to slow down to 40km/h or less when passing a greater number of roadside services personnel from July.
The new law sees the 40km/h speed limit – which already applies to roadside police, fire and ambulance vehicles when their emergency lights are flashing – expand to include tow trucks and roadside assistance vehicles, as well as traffic management and incident response workers.
The new law essentially means motorists must slow to 40km/h for any vehicle stopped on the roadside with red, blue, magenta – and now yellow – flashing lights.
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Fines of up to $961 apply for drivers for Victoria’s 5.2 million licence holders who do not heed to the new law once it comes into effect from July 1, 2025.
“Incident response, roadside assistance and breakdown towing vehicles are there for us when we are in need – this change acknowledges the risks they take and our commitment to keeping them safe,” Victorian roads minister Melissa Horne said in announcing the new rule.
“It is the responsibility of all drivers to familiarise themselves with this road rule and to always slow to 40km/h past responding vehicles – for the safety of workers and all road users.”
According to Safe Work Australia, an average of 191 workplace deaths have occurred annually over the past five years.
A 2024 survey by the Road Worker Safety Working Group (RWSWG) – formed by Roads Australia – of more than 1100 road workers showed almost one-in-four (353) had witnessed or been part of a ‘near miss involving narrowly avoided collision between road worker and member of public’.
Almost one in 10 (96) of those surveyed said they had been ‘hit by [a] vehicle involving [a] collision between [a] road worker and member of public’.
The new rules apply to drivers in every lane on multi-lane roads, but do not apply to vehicles travelling on the opposite side of a divided road.
Drivers are also not required to wait until the next speed limit signpost to increase their speed beyond 40km/h once past the emergency vehicle/s and worker/s.
It makes Victoria the last state/territory in Australia to make the move, extending existing Road Rule 79A that has required motorists to slow for emergency vehicles – anything with red, blue or magenta flashing lights – since it was introduced in 2017.
Victoria had the third-highest number of road deaths (281) behind New South Wales (340) and Queensland (302) in a record Australian road toll in 2024.
It was the fourth consecutive annual increase in the number of deaths and the highest figure recorded – at 1300 – on Australian roads in more than a decade.
