Victoria Police launches Operation Roadwise over Christmas, New Year
A TEEN crash victim’s parents have revealed the relentless devastation of the tragedy amid a last-ditch effort to avert the worst road toll in almost a decade.
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- Family’s grief gets worse every day
- Road toll: We’re on track for 300 deaths
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A TEEN crash victim’s parents have revealed the relentless devastation of the tragedy amid a last-ditch effort to avert the worst road toll in almost a decade.
The state is on track to record 290 road deaths this year.
From today, police will swarm streets and highways in an all-out effort to curb the number of lives lost.
Mildura couple Glenn and Sharyn Bertalli, whose 19-year-old son Cody died in a high-speed motorcycle crash last year, said the accident had devastated their family.
“You think you get through it but you don’t,’’ Mr Bertalli said.
“The effects of something like that is like throwing a pebble in the river — the ripples just keep getting bigger.”
Cody, a keen sportsman and CFA volunteer, lost control of his motorcycle and slammed into a metal bollard in a Mildura carpark.
His friends — many who the Bertallis have seen celebrate their 21st birthdays knowing their son will never reach his — established an annual car club run and wear wristbands bearing with the words “Gone but not forgotten” in Cody’s honour.
“It’s going on every day of every year — some child or someone is going to die because of a simple mistake or someone else’s simple mistake,’’ Mr Bertalli said.
“It’s like waking up feeling like half you heart is missing every day.”
Victoria’s annual road toll hasn’t topped 290 since 2009 but already stands at 279 this year — 36 more than at the same time last year.
One person has on average been killed every 36 hours — the latest death a woman who was a passenger in a car hit by an oncoming 4WD at Runnymede southwest of Rochester this afternoon.
Road user error was the cause of 85 per cent of accidents statewide.
Motorcyclist deaths have almost doubled.
Victoria Police has set up a Christmas tree with baubles bearing the first name and age of every person killed — the youngest a 28-week-old unborn baby girl and the eldest a man and woman aged 93.
Assistant Commissioner Doug Fryer said every available resource would be used in a 24-day road safety blitz.
Speed, fatigue, drug driving and distraction will be targeted in a bid to combat the rising number of road deaths.
“It’s not slowing down,’’ Mr Fryer said.
“It is such an outrageously shocking number.
“It is devastating lives.
“Everyone will be out doing as much as we can to keep the roads safe but we can’t do it alone and we need the community to understand that road trauma does happen to people that you know.”
Police Minister Lisa Neville said a fifth of those killed shouldn’t have been on the road because they’d been stripped of their licence.
Automatic numberplate technology to catch such drivers was being rolled out to all Highway Patrol vehicles.
“Victoria Police can’t do it alone,’’ Ms Neville said.
“We also need Victorians to step up.
“We want to keep people safe and with their families celebrating Christmas.
“Death and injury on the roads can have such a significant impact.
“I have a 20-year-old son and this is probably a parent’s worst nightmare.”