Editor’s view: Time Queensland got serious about road safety

The 10 lives lost on Queensland’s roads over the weekend are much more than a statistic, with families and friends now in the depths of grief, writes the editor.

A rescue helicopter was called to the scene of a serious crash on the Sunshine Coast where a man has suffered serious injuries and was trapped inside a vehicle after a horse truck and car collided.

Queensland’s horror road toll over the King’s Birthday long weekend is proof drivers are not getting the message when it comes to road safety.

With 10 people killed from Thursday night until Monday night, the toll is a huge increase on recent years.

In fact, between 2013 and 2020, the greatest number of fatalities on the corresponding long weekend was six.

And as acting Assistant Commissioner Chris Stream said on Monday, every one of the long weekend’s fatal crashes was preventable.

“Every single one of those 10 deaths has had a human contribution towards it,” Mr Stream said.

“Police will allege it involves speeding, not wearing your seatbelts, distraction, fatigue and also drug and alcohol.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Chris Stream says every one of the long weekend’s fatal crashes was preventable. Picture: NCA Newswire/John Gass

“This is 2023, it is such an easy thing to do to slide that belt across and put that on.

“So all of those traffic crashes that we’ve had, have had a human contribution to them and that’s why we call them traffic crashes and not traffic accidents.”

That is not to say the victims are at fault in these cases.

Rather, if everybody on the road stuck to the driving rules and recommendations, we could avoid virtually every dangerous road crash.

The weekend toll must be an incredibly frustrating result for police, who launched a safety blitz two weeks ago that conducted 47,870 random breath tests, as well as 2435 roadside drug tests – in total taking almost 1200 unfit drivers off the road.

Police did their bit. Maybe it’s time drivers started doing theirs.

The vast majority of drivers won’t get behind the wheel intoxicated, but it took decades before the behaviour was stigmatised the way it should be.

A rescue helicopter was called to the scene of a serious crash on the Sunshine Coast where a man has suffered serious injuries and was trapped inside a vehicle after a horse truck and car collided.

Likewise with seatbelts. You would have thought their use would be universal by now. But there are always a few idiots.

It’s the drivers with bad habits, who probably consider themselves to be good citizens, who need to change their ways.

Hoons and street racers are now rightly vilified, but there are still many drivers who creep up over the limit.

Speed limits aren’t a rough guide. They are there for a reason.

They are proved to save lives.

Fatigue is a killer. It’s time drivers took it seriously. Plan breaks, don’t push too far in a day.

And importantly, call out loved ones who set unrealistic goals.

Of course, the 10 lives lost over the weekend are so much more than a statistic.

As Mr Stream put it: “We have families that are now grieving, friends that are now grieving and also a wider impact on the enforcement community as well as those first responders.”

It’s a terrible price to pay for carelessness or impatience. It’s time we all took road safety seriously.

Relatives leave tributes at the scene where a 30-year-old man died after a single-vehicle crash at Worongary, in the Gold Coast hinterland. Picture: Glenn Hampson

Is this the end of coal’s golden goose

A sharp fall in coal export earnings, expected to drop by a stunning $58bn nationally by 2024-25, will undoubtedly be felt in the economy as well as the state government’s coffers.

Coal prices have come off record highs, brought on by a range of factors, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, so this represents a normalisation rather than catastrophe.

But it underscores the missed opportunity for Queenslanders after the state government took the short-term spoils of high coal prices and blew it on election sweeteners ahead of next year’s state poll.

There were $15bn in coal royalties revealed in the state budget, yet one of the biggest components this cash went towards was a $550 power bill rebate.

This was despite the federal government already offering a similar rebate in a more targeted manner and warning against splashing out the money more broadly for fear of adding to inflation. At a time when the state’s health system is falling apart and youth crime is running rampant, there could have been better uses from this temporary boost in revenue.

The coal industry is a significant employer in Queensland and the resource nets significant revenue for the state.

But as the world moves towards net zero emissions, it is clear that the demand and value of coal exports will diminish over time.

The Resources Energy Report has also warned that China is seeking to become more energy-independent and will need less of Queensland’s coal in the future.

This might be good news for a government that is working towards net zero, but it’s not great for the bottom line.

The expected sharp drop in coal royalties shows why you need to take advantage of the boom times to invest in transformational opportunities for the state, instead of cynical vote-buying exercises.

Nothing lasts forever.