Dangerous morons on our roads make the media’s job easy – and it’s sickening | Jessica Adamson
There’ll never be a shortage of shocking news bulletins while Australia has this many idiots, writes Jessica Adamson.
Opinion
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Earlier this year I joined Adelaide’s FIVEAA Breakfast radio team, reading the news one or two mornings a week, every half-hour from 5.30am to 9am.
My job there is to write and present those 8 bulletins, with the very latest on what’s happening in South Australia, around the nation and the world.
I love the immediacy of it, the adrenaline rush and the team.
On the short drive in, I often worry about not having enough news to fill the bulletins.
I needn’t worry, because there are so many morons breaking the law out there, that time after time, day after day, they do my job for me.
I’m specifically talking about those blatantly flouting the road rules.
Unlicensed morons, drunk morons, morons with drugs in their system, morons on phones, speeding morons and morons on L and P plates.
When I see the reports coming in each day from police, I honestly wonder how more of us aren’t killed going about our daily business.
Last Monday we reported on an Elizabeth Downs man caught doing 196 km/h in an 80 zone at 4.30am on Main North Road, Elizabeth Grove.
Three days later, just after midnight, a camera snapped again as he crossed the Main North Road and Womma Road intersection doing 203 km/h.
To top things off, his license was already suspended.
When officers knocked on his door, they and police dog Jax found him in a cupboard. It seems an odd place to spend a Sunday night at home.
They had to search even harder for his prized Commodore sedan to impound it. I hope it’s crushed like a tin can when he has his day in court.
That moron is not alone. Here’s just a tiny snapshot of the last few weeks.
6.15pm, July 30, Nairne Rd, Oakbank. 28-year-old Woodside man driving at 166 km/h in an 80 zone.
3.45pm, July 23, Olympic Dam Highway, Arcoona. 24-year-old Ridson Park man riding a Yamaha motorcycle at 171 km/h in a 100 zone.
12.30pm, August 13, Government Road, Renmark. 18-year-old Renmark P plater caught doing 171 km/h in an 80 zone.
6pm, July 6, Main South Road McLaren Vale. 29-year-old Craigmore man doing 177 km/h in a 60 zone. Police say he was detected at extreme speed on the same day on both Main South Road and Wheatsheaf Roads at Morphett Vale – and again on August 14 at Hillbank.
This genius moron in a grey ford falcon sedan posted the footage to social media, sealing his fate. He’s lost his license for 12 months. It should be longer.
6.51pm, July 24, Military Road, Taperoo. 22-year-old P-plater from Semaphore detected at 108km/h in a 50 zone.
10.50pm, July 22, Elliott Street, Whyalla. 17-year-old L-plater caught doing 122 km/h in a 60 zone on a Kawasaki motorbike.
2am, June 11, Grand Junction Road, Mansfield Park. 42-year-old Gepps Cross man detected at 120 km/h in a 60 zone. Blood alcohol reading of 0.113.
3pm, July 4, Salisbury Highway, Parafield Gardens. 29-year-old Salisbury man at 160 km/h in a 60 zone. He overtook a patrol car at high speed on a stolen Suzuki motorcycle.
Bringing it home for the morons late last week was a 40-year-old northern suburbs woman found passed out at the wheel of her car after crashing it into another vehicle in Beverley. It was 2pm.
When police opened the car door, the woman reportedly vomited as a bottle of wine rolled out of her vehicle. She blew 0.416, 8 times the legal limit.
It’s a sickening snapshot of SA’s worst drivers and I’m sick of it.
When will it end?
How can police even begin to try and keep us safe on our roads with behaviour like that? These people know they’re putting others’ lives at risk as well as their own and yet, it continues.
In three weeks’ time, on September 19, South Australia’s new mobile phone detection cameras will go live.
Bring it on. If you think the cost-of-living crisis is tough, brace yourselves for the tsunami of fines that’s about to hit. And so it should.
The cameras are in operation now, just without the fines.
In the first month of the grace period, 30, 754 warning letters were sent to motorists caught using their phone while driving.
Three drivers were each caught a staggering 19 times.
19 times?!
You don’t think you might stop after the first or second warning letter? That’s about $12,500 in fines come September.
836 motorists caught at least 4 times each would have lost their licences.
We know phones are the cause of so many accidents and yet so many drivers can’t resist the temptation.
SA Police Traffic Services Branch Superintendent Darren Fielke says there’s been ample warning ahead of the camera rollout.
“Drivers who are not getting the message need to change their driving behaviour very quickly, or they’ll lose their licence, which in some cases could be their livelihood, or worst of all kill themselves or another innocent road user,” he says.
Western Australia’s road toll is so concerning right now that the State Government has brought forward an emergency road safety summit.
They’re considering a range of drastic measures, including confiscating people’s mobile phones if they’re caught using them while driving.
It’s a good start.
No doubt the offenders will find themselves another phone, but it’s a massive inconvenience and a strong deterrent.
There’s no quick fix to our road safety issues but we cannot give up.
We need serious investment into positive road behaviour education in our primary schools, high schools and sporting clubs.
We need fresh and innovative safety campaigns and new ideas about penalties and punishments, the current deterrents simply aren’t working.
Take licenses away for longer, install more cameras, jack up the fines, impound more cars for longer and crush more vehicles into scrap metal.
Morons don’t like to lose their cars so hit them where it hurts most.
Encouragingly, as we get closer to the mobile phone cameras going live, police say the latest data shows a “significant downward trend” in detections as drivers become more familiar with the locations and the threat of copping a $556 fine plus a $102 levy.
It’s a positive sign and one I hope will make a real difference to the spiralling toll of injuries and fatalities.
Imagine a time when we’re not talking about morons on our roads.
Imagine a time when I have no bad news stories to fill the radio bulletins with.
If it ever comes, it’ll be a great day.
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