Fatal police pursuit helped shape Assistant Commissioner Libby Murphy’s agenda
The state’s new road safety top cop has spoken passionately about her drive to achieve zero road fatalities in Victoria, revealing the fatal police pursuit that helped shape her agenda.
VIC News
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A fatal police pursuit has helped shape the agenda of the state’s new road safety top cop, driving her to achieve zero road fatalities in Victoria.
After more than three decades in the force in a variety of roles — including the highway patrol and both metro and rural policing — newly appointed Assistant Commissioner Libby Murphy wants no more deaths.
She said it was heartbreaking to deliver the news to people their loved ones had died.
“Unfortunately I have had to do too many of them, your heart is racing, pounding.
“Police see horrible things. Every road death for me is a failure.”
It comes as 261 road users have died this year, Victoria’s highest road toll since 2016.
Her involvement in a police pursuit chasing a stolen car that fatally struck a 5-year-old boy helps to drive Murphy’s passion for road safety.
“I don’t think you would be human if you weren’t impacted,” she said.
“I don’t want people to not have people at the Christmas table this year.
“Towards zero, that is our ultimate goal. I don’t think it is pie in the sky stuff.”
She said many road users have a “certain invincibility” and “they think it won’t happen to them.”
Murphy said drug driving overtaking drink driving was a worry and she was “gobsmacked” 1 in 4 drivers tested recently leaving a music festival in Marysville had drugs in their system.
“It is really concerning people think they can do that.”
Another concern was the 29 Victorians who had died in 2019 from not wearing a seatbelt.
“It is legislation that came in 1970. I’m asking people to think when they get in the car,” she said.
“Sometimes we become automatons.”
As a road user, Murphy has received one speeding ticket for travelling 83km/h in an 80km/h zone.
“It was a good learning for me, pay attention and be mindful,” she said.
Her 16-year-old son has recently gotten his L-plates, heightening her “concern” for young drivers.
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She will consider “anything” that helps to reduce the road toll — including increasing speeding fines and double demerits — but getting “back to basics” was fundamental.
“Keeping left, not speeding, not being distracted and understanding you are not invincible,” she said.
“I am flabbergasted, people are on their phones, I see it on a daily basis.
“Distraction is overrepresented in our fatalities. It takes just one second.”
Operation Roadwise — a statewide blitz on our roads over the Christmas and New Year — runs until January 5.