Top Australian police reveal shocking road crash causes and beg for drivers to be more careful
Australia’s top traffic police are making an extraordinary plea as they expose the fatal five factors causing a spike in road deaths, with many Aussies driving while drunk. See the video.
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Australia’s top traffic police are making an extraordinary intervention ahead of the holidays to warn against the fatal five factors causing a spike in road deaths, with a new survey showing nearly a third of motorists admit to driving while drunk.
Citing speed, seatbelts, alcohol and drugs, phones and fatigue, the top cops join with News Corp’s Arrive Alive campaign, with families who have lost loved ones to the fatal five sharing their heartbreaking stories.
New South Wales Police acting Assistant Commissioner Tracy Chapman, Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Glenn Weir, South Australian Police Assistant Commissioner Ian Parrott and Queensland Police acting Assistant Commissioner Janelle Andrews are pleading with drivers to think before they get behind the wheel.
Poor driver behaviour has become the major cause behind the increasing carnage on our roads, reversing decades of declines. A total of 1318 Australians have died on our roads in the past 12 months.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE
A snapshot survey of 1134 people conducted in December shows driver attitudes towards alcohol and drugs have become alarmingly lax.
Almost one third of drivers admit to having got behind the wheel while drunk, while more than two thirds have had a speeding fine, and a quarter have used their phones while driving.
Of those surveyed, about 50 per cent said they had made calls while driving using hands-free features, 19 per cent have read texts while stopped at lights, seven per cent have sent a text while stopped at lights, and three per cent have sent a text while the vehicle was moving.
More than one in four respondents (28 per cent) said they have driven a vehicle while over the legal blood alcohol limit, four per cent have driven under the influence of drugs, 14 per cent have had one red light fine, and 86 per cent have a speeding fine.
Meanwhile, government figures show that each day, Australian police issue almost 1000 mobile phone use fines, 11,506 speeding tickets, 37 drug driving fines, 100 drink driving fines and 234 seatbelt penalties.
Another 150 unlicensed drivers are being caught each day, with police using automatic number plate recognition software to nab the offenders.
The number of lives lost on Australia’s roads had been declining since 1970, when mandatory seat belt laws were introduced, and had dropped down to 1097 deaths by 2020, but recent spikes have alarmed police.
While the new survey revealed many admissions of bad driver behaviour, 60 per cent of those same people said they felt concerned for their own safety on the roads.
Asked about the most concerning behaviours they witnessed from other drivers, they said speeding, not indicating when changing lanes, tailgating, dangerous overtaking or merging, and using a phone while driving.
The top traffic cops are demanding drivers take more responsibility for their actions on the road during the festive season.
“It’s horrendous for a life to be lost at any time of the year but certainly leading into the Christmas and holiday period, the impact on families to not have that loved one around their Christmas table is tremendous and it affects so many people,” NSW acting Assistant Commissioner Tracy Chapman said.
“There are more people on the roads, more people who are time poor but ultimately, the choices made on the road cost lives.”
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Glenn Weir said driver behaviour had plummeted since Covid-19.
“We are seeing a trend around Australia and around the western world as well,” he said.
“People are taking more risks, there seems to be less patience, less respect on the roads and we’re seeing that play out inroad trauma.”
Queensland’s Acting Assistant Commissioner Janelle Andrews said 95 per cent of fatal crashes in the state “are a result of the fatal five – speeding, impairment, distraction, failing to wear seatbelts and fatigue.”
“It’s really about choices and I think people need to make sensible choices and even consider if they are driving as they live, angry, frustrated, distracted,” she said.
“Just to take a pause and think about that when (you) become in charge of a vehicle on the roads.”
Queensland police would be strictly enforcing penalties in the lead up to Christmas, Asst. Comm. Andrews warned.
“It’s better to lose your licence than lose your life,” she said.
Speeding drivers remain the major cause of fatalities, accounting for almost half of fatal crashes in NSW.
Victoria has plans to introduce more point-to-point speed cameras, to catch drivers who are breaking the limit during their total journey. Those types of cameras are not yet in place in NSW.
Assistant Commissioner Weir said speed cameras – introduced in Victoria in 1985 and NSW in 1991 – saved lives, rejecting claims they were a “revenue raiser:”
“They are there to provide a really essential role in making people comply with the speed limit because it’s posted for a purpose,” he said.
“Most vehicles now have an app or satnav that will tell you where the fixed speed cameras are and it still astounds me the amount of people who we detect.”
Assistant Commissioner Parrott said he noticed drivers in South Australia were increasingly willing to take dangerous risks.
“Driver behaviour has everything to do with the spike in deaths,” he said.
“We often talk about demonising bad drivers as the ones being involved in fatal crashes.
“It’s not always the ones who drive dangerously, or speed or take drugs or alcohol or who are distracted. but the challenges that almost everyone is prepared to take a risk in their car at a certain time for different reasons, running late to pick the kids up, running late for an appointment or to get to work.
“There are all these little things that would resonate with people who would go, yeah, OK I do that, but are not prepared to accept that that driving behaviour is likely to lead to their death or somebody else’s death on our roads.”
Police conducted almost 10 million random breath tests in 2023, down from 15 million in 2019.
Originally published as Top Australian police reveal shocking road crash causes and beg for drivers to be more careful
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