‘News no family wants to hear’: Minister’s plea as road toll surges

Mother reveals the nightmare of learning about her daughter’s death as the Minns government urges motorists to take care over Christmas amid the state’s soaring road toll.

Kirsty Greenfield was cooking an early Christmas lunch for her family when police arrived and told her her 19-year-old daughter Casey Mallia had been in a car crash on a country highway.

It was three days before Christmas in 2019, and Casey had been on the Sturt Highway about 45km southeast of Narrandera, travelling away for a holiday.

“I took the rubbish out and I saw the police sitting outside … I approached the car and I could see the reluctance on their faces,” Ms Greenfield said.

“They said to me ‘Are you Casey’s mum?’

“The officers said she was in a critical condition and she’d been flown to Canberra. I just remember falling into the back seat of the car.”

Casey Mallia passed away on December 23, 2019, as the result of an accident on the Sturt Highway. Five years on, her mum Kristy Greenfield is urging people to be safe on our roads this holiday season.

Casey lost her fight for life. Her loved ones made the heartbreaking decision to donate her organs – which ultimately saved eight other lives.

Casey, a “ball of energy” according to her mum, had become a childcare worker not long before her death on a country road, and the majority of the state’s road toll – as of midnight December 12, 337 people had lost their lives on NSW roads – have happened on country roads.

The scene of a fatal crash on Friday which saw a car roll down the M5 embankment at Revesby and catch fire. Picture: Julian Andrews

While country residents make up only a third of NSW’s population, deaths on rural and regional roads make up nearly 70 per cent of the state’s road toll – or 234 fatalities in the country compared with 104 on metropolitan roads.

Put another way, the fatality rate per head of population for country residents of NSW is almost four times that of metropolitan residents.

Dig deeper into the figures and most rural roads deaths are occurring in or near country towns rather than remote highways, with speeding nearly always a factor.

Country urban areas are defined as those outside of Sydney, Newcastle or Wollongong where the speed limit is 80km/h or less.

Regional Transport and Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison – who receives an SMS in real time each time there is a road fatality – said the figures were “sobering”.

While the majority of motorists drove safely, Ms Aitchison – who grew up in a coach driving family – said she believed there was a small element of the community that felt doing the right thing was not a priority.

“There is a demographic that just doesn’t want to be told,” she said.

“But for every person who dies on the road – particularly in a regional community where everybody knows everyone – it is devastating.

“That person is a school mate, someone’s colleague, sibling, child. and that grief, regret and trauma lasts a lifetime. One poor decision and there are tragic and lifelong consequences. I think about that when I get an early morning text.”

Five years on from her “cheeky and kind” daughter’s passing, Ms Greenfield is also urging people to be safe on our roads this holiday season.

“My family is battling. We all struggle and it gets really difficult at this time of year,” she said.

“Don’t be the reason that your family, or somebody else’s, has to spend a lifetime grieving.

“It’s better to take a little bit longer and enjoy the trip, rather than just racing to get somewhere and driving crazily.”