Focus on the roads’ big killer

Stop the spending on expensive, unsuccessful behaviour- changing programs, writes David Skegg

ARTICLES on road safety, while well intentioned, are a misstep in the understanding, and consequential control, of the death, injury, and damage rates on our roads ( Mercury, January 2).

With the exception of seat belt usage ( that very famous high- speed crash onto a brick wall in Paris, where the only person wearing a seatbelt survived, proves that point), the reduction in the annual death rate of these random consequences is due to design changes in the vehicles and roads, not altered human behaviour.

I have spent much of my life in the safety sciences and accident forensics.

It is well understood that there is one predominant source of energy to do damage ( speed) and there is a lineal relationship between speed and damage.

To put it in simple terms, it doesn’t really matter how drunk you are, it matters critically how fast you are going. Hit something a 1km/ h, and not much damage can be done; hit it at 100km/ h and the outcome is unacceptable.

I am not advocating removing the laws on driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs, but the focus needs to change.

Reduce speed, and you reduce the amount of damage that can ensue.

Of course, there is a down side to this equation, in that there is an unacceptable social cost of slowing things down too far, but surely a balance can be found?

Zero outcomes is not physically possible ( the only way to have no risk is to have no future), but we can reduce the costs to our society through engineering controls, as has been amply demonstrated in the improvement of car and road design, and those things are by no means complete.

As an example, why does my very ordinary and common car have the capability to do 180km/ h or more?

Stop the spending on the expensive, unsuccessful and unreliable behaviour-changing programs, and look to reducing the amount of energy available to do damage.

Put energy- absorption devices in place, and pay attention to the laws of physics.

Perhaps, as an awareness

AS AN EXAMPLE, WHY DOES MY VERY ORDINARY AND COMMON CAR HAVE THE CAPABILITY TO DO 180KM/ H OR MORE?

campaign, those laws should be taught to the learners and younger drivers as part of understanding how they can control the outcomes, along with an understanding of how a car actually works?

I would bet that most these days don’t understand that brakes work by converting the energy of moving mass into heat, or that staying away from the person in front of you for two or more seconds ( at any speed — hence the distance changes) is the best airbag in the business.

Tasmanian David Skegg holds a master’s degree in safety science, and is a past chairman of the College of Fellows, Safety Institute of Australia, and former national president of the Safety Institute of Australia.