Driving hard to cut human toll

IN the year I got my driver’s licence – 1968 – 118 Tasmanians died on our roads.

The toll peaked at 130 in 1971, which was the start of governments taking road safety seriously.

They were dangerous times.

My dad taught me to drive in the family FB Holden. He was a sensible, careful driver. He passed on all he knew.

But, of course, there were some things he probably did not know.

Which means I did not know them either.

That was training in those days. The university of life.

The good news is that if you are a learner driver, it’s the safest you will ever be behind the wheel. All the data tells us that.

But once you’re on your own, your risk of dying or being seriously injured increases dramatically.

Already this year 44 men aged between 17 and 25 have been killed or seriously injured on our roads.

If 44 young Tasmanian men were killed in the workplace, imagine the community response.

It is a human toll, not a road toll. And the tragedy flows on to families, friends, communities.

Better roads, better cars, better drivers, better enforcement, safer speeds are part of Tasmania’s Towards Zero road-safety strategy.

So we need to send our young drivers on to the roads with more supervised experience, a deeper understanding of their responsibilities, a realisation that we are all part of the problem and must be part of the solution by behaving much better behind the wheel.

I listened to several groups of Tasmanian drivers last week and the telling and

Garry Bailey

depressing thing was that everyone else was a problem on the road, not them.

Not one concession that perhaps they were not up to the mark.

Only education, training and enforcement will change that mindset.

But I am optimistic. That was reinforced this week when a group of young people spoke up for their community at Sorell about the dangers of drivers evading police.

This is where we need to be working. Communities need to take ownership of the road safety problem.

And if those most at risk – young drivers – can lead the way, that will be a powerful alliance.

If they want their streets, their roads, their highways to be safe they need to speak up and act.

They need to ask not just themselves but their communities this question: is 20, 30 or 40 deaths and 300 serious injuries a year an acceptable price for getting from A to B?

Every thinking Tasmanian should know the answer.

And every Tasmanian can make a difference by being better drivers.

By telling their family and friends not to use their mobile phones while driving.

By telling the driver of the vehicle they are a passenger in that their driving is dangerous, through speed, inattention or using alcohol or drugs.

To use a line from the Road Safety Advisory Council’s successful drink-driving campaign, real mates wouldn’t put their mates at risk that way.

Because remember, it’s not just drivers who are killed or injured.

There is real opportunity to put a dent in these awful roadtrauma statistics with programs currently running or being evaluated.

An enhanced graduated licensing system is being considered by the Department of State Growth.

We have a significantly improved motorcycle learner training course, which is more comprehensive with an onroad component, and we have a voluntary refresher course for older motorcyclists.

That improved motorcycle training is a direct response to a significant overrepresentation of motorcyclists in the number of deaths and serious injuries.

We have had six motorcycle fatalities so far this year – and let’s not delude ourselves that we are doing alright just because it’s no worse than 2017.

Families have lost sons, husbands, fathers, brothers.

Zero is the only number worth applauding in road safety, otherwise you are signalling that deaths and injuries are the price of a transport system that puts efficiency and costs ahead of human life.

Is any Tasmanian prepared to put their life, or the life of someone they love, on the line to save someone else time and money?

That’s not good policy, that’s The Hunger Games.

Car technology and better roads are making a difference. The State Government is leading by example by turning over its fleet to only vehicles rated five-star for safety. In terms of duty of care for employees, it’s a no-brainer.

We are building safer roads, like the Midland Highway. But these are infrastructure projects that will take decades to progressively roll out.

We cannot wait for these technological solutions to flow through, because Tasmanians will continue to die in avoidable crashes because of the human factor.

If Tasmanians really want efficiency and cost savings, then implementing more road safety initiatives to make our transport system safer will deliver.

After all, the state’s yearly burden of road trauma is more than 470 people admitted to hospital and a cost to the economy of nearly $500 million.

There is a greater drag on the economy by not doing something about road trauma than doing something.

Road safety is a pretty simple proposition – it’s everyone’s responsibility.

I think the group of young people at Sorell who decided to do something about road safety in their community nailed it on their website, www.dontrun.com.au.

“If we only save one life, we are doing the right thing.”

We all think we are perfect behind the wheel but the truth is we can all do better, explains