Grief bonds women in plea for track safety

Two women bonded for life over the death of their loved ones on a West Australian road four years ago have called for safer practices for truck drivers.

Lisa Sawyer's brother and Lystra Tagliaferri's partner were hit by a truck and killed in February 2011 while changing a tyre.

Driver Paul Kershaw was sentenced to five years' jail for dangerous driving.

Mrs Sawyer said the deaths were "totally preventable".

"The driver was fatigued, we don't want this to happen to anyone else," she told AAP on Thursday at a Safety Summit in St Kilda, organised by the Transport Workers' Union.

"We are bonded for life."

The summit follows an early morning peaceful protest outside Coles' headquarters on Thursday attended by nearly 100 people.

The TWU say the trucking industry "is in crisis", with 51 truck drivers killed on Australian roads on average each year.

They called on Coles to sign up to a safety charter, but a Coles spokesman said the TWU's claims were baseless.

"Coles is a signatory to the voluntary Retail Logistics Supply Chain Code of Conduct, which sets out minimum standards of operational behaviour, and Coles ensures its suppliers and contractors are aware of and understand the code," he said in a statement.

"The TWU regularly makes baseless, inaccurate and offensive claims against Coles in an effort to increase their membership, yet fails to produce evidence to support those claims."

Protesters shut down Toorak Road for about 10 minutes as they marched to Coles' HQ.

"Driving a truck is the most dangerous job in Australia," a TWU official said in a statement on Thursday.