Tackle the toll: Road deaths are never acceptable as families live with consequences
THERE wouldn’t be any complacency about road deaths if people understood the appalling consequences of even one fatality, writes Doug Fryer.
Opinion
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IN 2015 we lost 252 lives on Victorian roads, an outrageously unacceptable number. We know our roads are safer, cars are safer and we in law enforcement are doing all we can to keep roads safe. But there appears to be some community complacency around road safety. We all have a part to play; road safety is a shared responsibility.
In Victoria we average 60 homicides a year, and the community is rightly outraged. Why is it, then, some of our community seems to be complacent about the number of lives we lose on our roads? I often wonder what tragedy needs to occur for our community to be similarly outraged.
Unless you have experienced the grief of losing a loved one to road trauma, I don’t think we can truly imagine what this would be like — an unimaginable pain that will never go away. Most road deaths are due to people making minor mistakes, like glancing at their phone while driving. That one moment of distraction could happen to you. It is those who are left behind, that wake each day wishing for one last chance to say goodbye.
We’ve recently seen kids, some as young as 13, getting in cars driven by other kids without licences. Many will say it’s “just joy riding”. Ask the families and friends affected by the two recent crashes involving large numbers of kids in Sunshine and Narre Warren how much “joy” they are experiencing. Our families are being torn apart by the grief; many will never be the same.
In 2015, 45 of the 252 road deaths involved illicit drugs, a substantial jump from 32 in 2014.
Since 2013 we’ve seen illicit drugs more prevalent in road death than alcohol. We’ve also seen the presence of illicit drugs in serious road injuries increase to 632 in 2015, from 494 in 2014.
I can’t fathom why someone would get in a car, a potential lethal weapon, with an illicit substance in their system. But then, they’re not thinking because who in their right mind wants to kill another person? Many motorists get in a car without considering the ramifications of how their life can change in a split second. But a car isn’t a chair to be comfortable in while going from A to B. You must concentrate and focus on “driving the car”.
I’D like drivers to reflect on their last 5km travelled. Can you remember travelling for those few minutes, or is it a blur? If we’re honest, many will say it was a blur and that is when accidents happen and lives are forever broken.
We can’t just police our way out of the trauma we are seeing and we can’t be everywhere. The community must take some responsibility for their safety and for the safety of others on the roads. I want the community to understand road trauma can and will happen to someone you know.
It sounds so simple: pay attention and obey the road rules. For me, that means no illicit drug use, no drink-driving, speeding, mobile phone use or distraction. Just focus on driving within your skills and getting to your destination safely; remember, an accident could happen to you.
Doug Fryer is the Victoria Police Road Policing Command Assistant Commissioner
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