Top cop hits out at motorists who flout laws

NSW police dealt out more than 2500 tickets a day over the holiday period and with the final death toll almost double last year’s, a top cop has unleashed on motorists.

A 17-year-old girl died after a car crashed into a parked ute in Yagoona. Picture: Steve Harris

NSW police dealt out more than 2500 tickets a day over the holiday period and with the final death toll almost double last year’s, a top cop has unleashed on motorists.

Operation Safe Arrival finished at midnight Monday with 28 deaths recorded since December 15, well above the 2016-17 total of 16.

Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn pleaded for drivers to “wake up to themselves” to end the carnage.

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“I’m bitterly disappointed and frustrated in the fact that there are people who are not heeding the messages and putting other people’s lives at risk,” she said. “Simply put, it is poor decisions that are killing people on our roads and it’s not just the person making poor decisions that are dying, they are often taking innocent people with them.”

There have been 28 deaths on NSW roads since December 15. Picture: Steve Harris

She said 46,615 total ­infringements for speeding, drink driving and disobeying laws were issued over the 18 days of the holiday period, several thousand more than last year’s figure of 44,134.

“If we are handing out more than 20,000 speeding tickets over 18 days — 1000 a day — that’s something else that’s happening,” Ms Burn said.

“If all of those people were actually listening and stuck to the speed limit and drove to the conditions we may not be in this predicament.

Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn has hit out at drivers.

“Many of those people who died, it was completely avoidable and senseless and many of those people were innocent people, passengers in vehicles or just doing the right thing on the road.”

Centre for Road Safety boss Bernard Carlon said while people were asking for a silver bullet to cut the toll “people could simply follow the law”.

“For every 5km you add to your speed you double the risk of having a crash — it’s those small ­increments, those casual speeding over the speed limit which actually adds a significant amount of risk,” he said.

So far three people have died in 2018. An 18-year-old male driver has been charged over the death of a 17-year-old female passenger at ­Yagoona just 15 minutes into the New Year. “This is just another ­tragic loss,” Ms Burn said. “It really highlights  the senseless­ness when things go wrong.”

The 2017 road toll of 392 was the worst since 2010 when 405 lives were lost.