Police target five driving offences: Speeding, drink and drug driving, fatigue, seat belts, distraction
FED up police officers are cracking down on the five common and potentially fatal offences drivers are committing on our roads.
FURIOUS police have slammed “irresponsible drivers” who’ve helped boost the horrific road toll to alarming levels amid warnings the safety message is failing to hit home.
Superintendent David Johnson, of Queensland’s Road Policing Command, said police would be targeting drivers who commit the fatal five offences — speeding, drink and drug driving, distraction, fatigue and seat belts — this holiday season.
Supt Johnson told news.com.au that too many lives have been lost on our roads by the actions of “irresponsible” drivers who fail to think about themselves or others.
“One in five road fatalities in 2017 involved a speeding driver,” Supt Johnson said.
“One in four road fatalities involved a driver under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
“The tragedy is all of these could have been avoided. It’s alarming and concerning for us.”
Supt Johnson said it was tragic for those who died and their families but was also traumatic for emergency service crews who were called to the scenes of the fatalities.
Queensland’s road toll stands at 246 so far this year with 22 killed in December alone.
Supt Johnson pointed to the thousands of fines issued to drivers this month as evidence motorists were simply not listening to police.
He also wanted police would be out in full force in a series of targeted traffic operations on roads and highways in key high-risk areas.
The state’s 50-day Christmas Road Safety Campaign which started on December 8 will finish up on January 25.
Since the beginning of the campaign until midnight on the 28th, QLD police have recorded a staggering 9692 speeding offences, issued 526 seat belt fines and caught 763 drivers using their mobile phones.
Some 971 drivers have also been caught drink driving.
In one case, police caught a driver who was allegedly doing 201km in 100km/h zone on the Pacific Motorway at Slacks Creek on Wednesday.
Supt Johnson said he remained puzzled as to why people continued to get behind the wheel knowing they had been drinking, were tired or likely to use a phone while driving.
He said police didn’t want to be attending fatal accidents at any time of the year let alone during the festive season.
“We’re asking people to have a plan B and if you’re going to use the road during the party season have an alternative method for getting home,” he said.
His sentiments have been echoed by police in other states also grappling with shocking road tolls.
NSW Assistant Commissioner Michael Corboy also said road users needed to listen to police.
“Tragically, when a bad decision is made by a driver or rider, it is not only that person that is put at risk, they are usually putting their own passengers and all other road users at risk of getting involved in a fatal crash,” he said in a statement.
“We are past the point of being disappointed. We are now angry that drivers are not listening to our warnings.”
Assistant Commissioner Corboy said the recent road deaths had been traumatic to everyone involved.
“Especially [as] NSW and Victoria have now both had, in the last week, multiple fatalities where people have been incinerated. That is particularly devastating, not only to families but to the officers and emergency services who attend those scenes,” he said.
Assistant Commissioner Corboy said speeding, drink driving and fatigue were some of the biggest contributors in fatal crashes.
“Especially in country or regional areas and when we see a combination of any two of these factors, we have a disaster waiting to happen,” he said.
FACES OF TRAGEDY
The warnings over the road toll and pleas to drivers to take more care comes as several deaths marred the holiday period.
Jessica Falkholt continues to fight for her life after the fiery crash that killed her parents, Lars, 69, and Vivian, 60, and her sister Annabelle, 21, on the New South Wales south coast on Boxing Day.
Jessica, a 28-year-old National Institute of Dramatic Art graduate, who has played a role in Home & Away and other Australian television series, was travelling with her family when their vehicle was involved in a collision with a four-wheel drive.
Witnesses pulled the girls from the wreckage as the cars were engulfed in flames but her parents died at the scene, along with the other driver, a 50-year-old man named as Craig Anthony Whitall.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Whitall was a serial traffic offender and known drug user who was jailed for driving while disqualified and was driving on P plates having only recently got his licence back.
Fairfax also reported Whitall was heading home from a methadone clinic when the crash occurred.
One day before that tragedy in NSW, Queensland teenager Makayla Tritton, 18, and her mother Karin were killed in a horror head on collision while on their way to a Christmas Day lunch.
Police allege a black BMW sedan crossed the median strip and hit a tree before colliding with the Trittons’ Mitsubishi sedan in Manly West.
Makayla’s sister Tarmeka, 23, and father Laurence, 55, were also travelling in the car but are expected to make a full recovery.
Police said the 46-year-old driver of the BMW has been charged with multiple offences including dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death.
He faced a bedside hearing at the Princess Alexandra Hospital on Tuesday and is scheduled to appear at Wynnum Magistrates Court on January 15.
ALARMING FIGURES
NSW has had 384 fatalities on its roads in 2017, the worst figure in Australia.
Police have issued a whopping 14,660 speeding fines and nabbed 777 for drink driving.
Queensland’s toll remains at 242 people for the year.
In Victoria, the state’s road toll stands at 254 for 2017 after six people were killed from December 24 to 27. So far, 12 people have been killed in total since the start of its road safety campaign which began two weeks ago.
Police have also recorded 597 drink driving offences, 4933 speeding offences and 390 drug test offences.
Western Australia has recorded 153 deaths on its roads this year, Northern Territory, 30 and South Australia, 98.
The national toll has caused so much alarm that Labor has called for a national review to determine why Australia’s road toll is again on the rise.
Labor transport spokesman Anthony Albanese said: “The government needs to have an urgent reassessment of why it is that more people are dying on our roads with tragic consequences for their families and for their communities.”
NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said out of the 23 deaths on NSW roads this festive season, 14 occurred when a vehicle veered out of its lane.
A report released by the NRMA this month, Dead Tired, found that two-thirds of drivers surveyed drive for longer than two hours without a break.
An earlier report, Can’t Talk, Driving, found that one-in-five drivers had recorded a near miss because the other driver was on the phone and that more than half (55 per cent) admitted to using their phone illegally behind the wheel.
“As the horrific road toll rises so too does the number of people caught taking dumb risks behind the wheel — and this is what is so alarming,” he said.
“These holidays, police have caught over 750 drink-drivers and issued almost 13,500 speeding fines, despite widespread community awareness that double demerits apply until 2 January.”
The NRMA figures come as financial comparison site finder.com.au found an estimated 121,000 fines were handed out for using mobile phones while driving in Australia this year.
On average, that’s a fine handed out every four minutes across the country.
Alex Kidman, tech expert at finder.com.au said it was clear messages around distractions while driving aren’t really getting through to motorists.
Mr Kidman said NSW drivers have already been fined $12.3 million just for using their mobile phones when they shouldn’t be.
— with AAP
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