Weekend brings the news we dread
WHEN the newsroom phone rings on a public holiday, it’s never good news.
During traditionally heavy tourist periods, those phone calls invariably bring news of accidents either on local roads or one of our beaches. Yesterday we had both. As emergency services worked tirelessly to revive a mother who had been caught in trouble in the water at Lorne yesterday, the phone was running hot with news of, at first, a car that had rolled over on the Melbourne Rd and, later, a motorcyclist who was seriously injured when his bike crashed with a car on the Hamilton Highway.
As terrible as the news was, it was unfortunately not out of the ordinary for a newsroom during tourist season and presumably no great surprise to local emergency workers either.
The influx of visitors to our region always raises the danger of death and serious injury. No matter how many times authorities appeal to people to use common sense, preventable accidents continue to occur.
Yesterday this newspaper reported that police would inundate serious accident hot spots across the region this weekend. Superintendent Craig Gillard highlighted speeding, distracted driving and driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol as a particular focus and appealed to drivers to exercise patience and courtesy this Easter.
Yet early reports of the Melbourne Rd rollover said police would be investigating speed, drugs and alcohol as possible causes of yesterday’s crash.
Nobody wants to spend their Easter break at the scene of a serious crash and, while accidents are an unfortunate reality of life, all too often they come about because of our own reckless or negligent behaviour.
Take care out there this Easter. We don’t want you or someone you love to be in the headlines on Monday.