Our road toll is on its way back to the wild old days | David Penberthy

If the rate of deaths continues SA will end up with a 2023 road toll that looks more like the wild old days, writes David Penberthy.

Editor’s note: A driver died at Strathalbyn several hours after this column was published.
This is an awkward column to write as sadly enough there is a very real chance on current trends it will be numerically incorrect by the time it is published.

As of Wednesday morning when I started writing this piece, the South Australian road toll stood at 36, 20 more lives lost than at the same time last year, and significantly higher than many other years preceding Covid-19 during which traffic movements artificially reduced.

If the rate of deaths continues SA will end up with a 2023 road toll that looks more like the wild old days when drink driving was not policed, car design was inferior and safety measures such as seatbelts and child seats had not been introduced.

While I was preparing this piece two other stories broke – a cyclist was seriously injured at Darlington, and in a truly shocking case two teenagers were hit by a truck which may have run a red light outside Marryatville High.

The horror of what happened at Marryatville is hard to comprehend. This a school with a tight-knit community and everyone is wishing the students and teachers and parents the greatest strength as they get through this.

As I said up top, I hope this column needs no further numerical adjustment on account of anything else that may have happened overnight.

The pedestrian crossing lights outside Marryatville High School on Kensington Road. Picture: Russell Millard Photography

Last weekend presented SA with a miserable snapshot of the complexion of the road deaths we have seen in the year to date. One was a country motorist, Danny Westhoff, the father of Port legend Justin Westhoff, taken too soon in a motorcycle crash in the Barossa.

That tragedy was emblematic of the vast over representation of country people in the road toll. Then two other terrible crashes over the weekend, one claiming 51-year-old mother of two Georgina Heath who died outside Mick O’Shea’s pub on South Rd at Hackham; the second taking the life of 40-year-old mother Christine Sandford who had popped out for a few minutes to her local servo to buy some cooking oil on Friday night.

Our capacity to absorb all of this carnage as background noise is pretty remarkable when you stop and think about it.

Imagine if, as of mid-March, 36 people had been killed by bombs, firearms or in shark attacks in SA.

Car deaths seem to be the most processable of all, as if your number is simply up, in terms of the ongoing media coverage they attract and their capacity to drive conversations among family and friends.

Danny Westhoff

Hackham car crash victim Georgina Heath. Picture: Supplied,

It is bracing when you hear direct from the people who are affected by them, as we did on the radio on Monday after veteran SAPOL officer Dave Muir delivered a spontaneous heartfelt plea on the airwaves for people to take more care on the roads.

Dave retires from the force this week. He is a plain-talking and knockabout bloke, but you could hear a catch in his voice as he talked about what it’s actually like for police to attend these crash scenes and then to visit families unexpectedly to tell them their children or parents have been killed.

Dave’s words sparked something quite extraordinary and rare, something which illustrated just how many families have been affected by road tragedies, where we suddenly received an influx of messages from listeners who had lost loved ones on their roads.

“Guys if everyone could experience what myself and my family have been through since my wife was killed by a drink driver 15 months ago absolutely NO ONE would act like a d***head on our roads,” Dave the trucker wrote. As a professional heavy vehicle driver I’ve noticed it’s getting worse out here. People just don’t care.”

Then this one:

“Wednesday this week is my daughter’s 8th year anniversary. She was run over and killed by a negligent driver on her 20th birthday.

“Do I want any sympathy? Absolutely not. However as the amazing speech that David Muir made today I will back him up 100 per cent. If any who gets to hear this message, and if you speed or drive recklessly, please, please, don’t. Because my loss never leaves me.”

And this one from Helen:

“My husband and I have been on the receiving end of police at the door telling us that our beautiful young son aged 23 had been killed. So bloody cruel. All these years later it still breaks us.”

These are important stories and worth committing to print as they challenge our shoulder-shrugging ambivalence about road deaths being just one of those things.

So what to do? While there will sadly always be accidents through mistakes or inexperience, the one category of prangs we can come down on much harder involves wilfully dangerous and reckless driving.

We can also do a much better job legally of making a link between driving disqualified and unlicensed, and driving at high speeds or while drunk or on drugs, and regarding these as jailable offences.

I will leave you with this one, from the District Court two days ago.

A meth-addicted and meth-dealing single mother by the name of Sarah Jane Hayes, 41, has pleaded guilty to two charges of drug trafficking.

The court heard that Hayes has a long history of drug addiction, has refused to complete rehab, and had been caught driving while disqualified while on meth and had driven dangerously and started a pursuit in a bid to escape the police.

She also arrived half an hour late for her court hearing.

Judge Paul Muscat said that even though she “probably doesn’t deserve it” he’d spare Hayes from going to jail and give her another chance to attend drug counselling.

“If you stuff up then you can expect to end up serving the sentence of imprisonment,” Judge Muscat said.

“If” she stuffs up? What more does she have to do?