Race car driver at snail’s pace shares important safety message for airport workers

Professional race car driver Emily Duggan recently had the slowest ride of her life! She took to the airfield at Sydney Airport for a test drive, showcasing the airport’s unwavering commitment to safety.

With her expert skills behind the wheel, Emily navigated aircraft movement areas and airside roadways, highlighting the precision, control and safety measures that are at the core of operations at the airport.

The initiative was carried out as part of Airport Safety Week, highlighting to staff how challenging driving in close proximity to planes and vehicles can be.

Sydney Airport’s Aviation Safety Manager Bjorn Nielsen said bringing Emily in for this exercise was an opportunity to think outside the square when it comes to safety and engaging staff.

“One of our values at the airport is to challenge the status quo and continuously innovate,” Bjorn said.

“After working with our airport partners and seeing the demographic of airport workers changing to younger workers, we realised that we needed to try something new to better engage drivers on safe driving.

After wondering - ‘who is an expert in safe driving?’ There was a lightbulb moment – why not try a race car driver! After some research, it was clear Emily was a natural fit for the idea.

“We didn’t want to send the wrong message so the focus has always been on the expertise and skill, particularly with hazard perception, and the feedback from staff and airport partners has been exceptionally positive,” Bjorn said.

“Airport workers said the video is really engaging and that if a professional race car driver found it challenging to drive airside, they can’t take driving skills for granted.”

Emily was also blown away by the experience and couldn’t believe how challenging it was driving on the airfield - including driving close to a plane.

“Even though we are only going 10km/h, I’m a little bit more nervous than I would be in my car,” Emily said in the video.

“Wow, there’s so much to look out for just coming out of the parking bay.”

Emily acknowledged how tricky it was, even for her.

“I’m only going 22km/h – I don’t want to go up to 40. You constantly have to be aware and looking around,” Emily said.

Emily also joined the safety sessions with workers to share her experience, giving the team a chance to meet the woman behind the camera.

While the campaign is still in its early days, the initial signs are positive and the safety team looks forward to building on this idea to better engage workers and further their mission to keep staff and passengers safe.

Check out the video on Sydney’s Airport’s Facebook page and follow for more news and updates from your local airport.