Pain behind figures

TODAY we lay bare the financial cost of car crashes in the Geelong region.

It’s easy to view the $50 million in five years figure as just that — a figure. A boring stat.

But the real cost of that figure is devastating.

That $50 million in TAC claims has covered paraplegics, quadriplegics, amputees, people with brain injuries and broken bones, and it represents shattered families and lost hopes and dreams.

The new TAC campaign raising awareness of the dangers of using mobile phones while driving is rightfully striking fear into the hearts of parents.

For those who have witnessed their teen and early-20s children continually checking their social media and texting in the house, in the street and in social situations, concern that they continue to do so while behind the wheel of their car is probably justified.

A recent TAC study of more than 500 Victorian drivers aged between 18 and 30 found 49 per cent check their phone instantly if they get a message.

Inexperienced drivers have enough to contend with on the roads without the distraction of flashing phones and attempting to type while steering.

Just looking at a text of a Facebook message while driving can be deadly.

“Between 2012-17 there were over a thousand serious injuries, that’s over a thousand individuals. Think of the families … think of the knock-on effects,” TAC chief executive officer Joe Calafiore pleads with the community in today’s paper. “The total cost to the taxpayer is very hard to quantify because there is the added enormous emotional cost day in and day out — especially in smaller, tight-knit communities.”

Fixing some of the region’s most dangerous roads — including the Geelong-Bacchus Marsh road — is a great start in reducing the region’s road toll but, of itself, is not the answer.

We all need to take responsibility for our own safety on the roads, and for showing our kids what it means to drive safely. That means putting away, our phones. Lives depend on it.