The NSW suburbs where drivers are most rewarded for their behaviour

Duncan Wakes-Miller has endured every parent’s worst nightmare – a knock on the door in the middle of the night from a police officer delivering the worst news imaginable.

Wakes-Miller’s son, Barney, was killed in a car crash in July 2020. A drunk schoolmate was behind the wheel when the car ran off the road in the northern beaches suburb of Elanora Heights. Barney, 17, a rear passenger, died at the scene.

Duncan Wakes-Miller speaking at his son Barney’s funeral in July 2020. Barney was killed in a crash with a drunk driver at the wheel.

Amid the fog of grief, Wakes-Miller has become a leading road safety advocate, co-founding the Road Trauma Support Group NSW. Barney’s death and the rising road toll are his driving force.

NSW has already failed to meet its 2024 target to reduce the state’s worsening road toll, with 68 more fatalities in the 12 months to July 15, compared to the same period in 2023 – 366 road deaths against 298. In a stark indication of the trajectory the state is on, the three-year average is 284 deaths a year in NSW.

NSW has already fallen well short of its commitment to halve deaths on the state’s roads by 2030, exceeding the target of 282 by 84 so far.

As the road toll has spiked, more than 1.2 million NSW drivers have had a demerit point wiped from their licences for maintaining a clean record for 12 months. The NSW Labor government insists this new program is fairer for motorists in areas that are heavily car-dependent.

The government says NSW drivers have “become very used to the stick of enforcement and this scheme presents a carrot to do the right thing”. However, according to trauma specialists and road safety experts, the program is unlikely to lower the road toll.

Dr John Crozier, recent chair of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons’ national trauma committee, said he had not found any road safety experts who supported the policy.

“This is a policy with zero evidence,” said Crozier, a trauma surgeon. He warned it risked sending an “inconsistent message that is acceptable to infringe” and failed to reward the vast majority of drivers who have no demerit points at all.

According to Transport for NSW, 61 per cent of NSW licence holders, or 3.3 million drivers, had no demerit points as of April 2024 and under 6 per cent have more than six demerit points.

Previously, drivers who had no demerit points qualified for a 50 per cent discount on the cost of renewing their licence under the Fair Go for Safe Drivers program. The former Coalition government discontinued funding for the program and Labor did not reinstate it.

Emeritus professor Ann Williamson, of UNSW’s transport and road safety research group, said rewarding safe drivers by axing a demerit point was “window dressing” and was more about sending a political message that fines were not designed to be revenue raising.

She said much more could be done to lower the road toll, such as ensuring the better collection of data at crash sites and designing roads to be driven at the speed limit, rather than simply erecting a sign. This included roundabouts, chicanes and other traffic-calming measures.

For Wakes-Miller, the focus should be on serious offenders. He has been urging the state government to implement victim impact panels, which have been highly effective in overseas jurisdictions.

The panels, used by groups such as Mothers Against Drink Driving in the US, allow families to share their stories and trauma with offenders as part of the sentencing process. They are more powerful and confronting than statements read out in court.

“While the demerit points return scheme benefits safe driving, reducing demerit points in
isolation may send the wrong message,” Wakes-Miller said.

“It might lead some drivers to believe that compliance is only temporarily necessary. Therefore, it is crucial to couple this incentive with additional provisions targeting serious offenders.”

Wakes-Miller said a “holistic approach to road safety should combine positive reinforcement for safe driving with stringent penalties and educational interventions for serious and repeat offenders”.

A Transport for NSW spokesperson said drivers rewarded with having a demerit point wiped from their licence “added to total road safety by maintaining an offence-free record for 12 months”.

“The NSW government is committed to reducing deaths and serious injuries on our roads and is concerned at the recent rise in the road toll, similar to what is being experienced in all other Australian states,” the spokesperson said.

Opposition roads spokesperson Natalie Ward said the road toll had “consistently risen” since the Labor government came to office. “Labor’s approach clearly is not working,” she said.

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