Doctors demand action on road toll
AUSTRALIA’S doctors have weighed into the state’s soaring road toll, demanding provisional drivers caught using mobiles be suspended for a year, as the AMA releases its first position paper on road safety in its 55-year history.
NSW
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IN an unprecedented move, Australia’s doctors have weighed into the state’s soaring road toll, demanding provisional drivers caught using mobiles be suspended for a year .
And professional drivers such as couriers and taxi drivers ought to be subject to strict anti-fatigue logbooks like heavy truck drivers, the Australian Medical Association argues in its first position paper on road safety in its 55-year history, to be released today.
AMA president Dr Michael Gannon said it was left to medical workers to deal with the “dreadful consequences” of the carnage on our roads.
Across the country, 66 people died on the roads over the holiday period, 28 in NSW alone. The state’s 2017 total of 392 dead was the worst since 2010. Already there are four dead this year, including a pedestrian who died when struck by a car at Villawood in Western Sydney on Tuesday night.
And a woman was left critically injured when the car she was driving while towing a caravan flipped on the M1 on the Central Coast yesterday afternoon.
Dr Gannon said part of the problem was a rise in “permissive drivers” who flout the laws and should face “meaningful sanctions”.
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“This is an important public health issue,” Dr Gannon said. “Mobile phones and other devices are driver distractions and a major cause of accidents, trauma and death.
“There should be zero tolerance of provisional and learner drivers who use mobile phones or electronic devices and penalties should include the loss of licence for up to a year.”
Under NSW law P1 plate holders (with red plates) who touch their phone lose four demerit points, resulting in a lost licence for three months, while P2 holders (green plates) lose points but retain their licence.
“It might seem like a harsh call but young drivers are the best group to communicate the message that a driver’s licence is a responsibility, not a right,” Dr Gannon said.
He said driver fatigue was also a problem “just as dangerous as drinking or drug use”.
The AMA position paper states: “The development of legislation regarding driver fatigue is desirable and consideration needs to be given to how this could occur.”
Dr Gannon said it would be difficult to legislate against fatigue by ordinary motorists, but those driving for a living could be policed via the kind of log books used by heavy truck drivers to ensure compliance.
“It’s an occupational health and safety issue and there’s a capacity within industry to do it,” Dr Gannon said.
“We see far too much carnage on our roads. Every day three Australians die on the roads and more at this time of year. We are imploring people to take care.”
Meanwhile, Home and Away actor Jessica Falkholt remains in a critical condition at St George Hospital after the Boxing Day crash that killed her parents and younger sister Annabelle on the south coast. The driver of the four-wheel-drive that hit Falkholt’s family’s car also died. He had a history of driving offences.