Take lessons from the cockpit

RACT chief executive Mark Mugnaioni suggests a failure in public policy when it comes to road safety and suggests a new approach is needed (“Urgent action needed to break horror trend on Tassie roads,” Talking Point, January 7). I agree, and suggest there are examples to look to in creating a better driver safety culture.

An obvious example is the aviation industry. Some of the applicable techniques used to make air transport safe can be applied to road safety.

For example, pilots receive reports on incidents and accidents outlining what happened and how to avoid or mitigate the danger.

Perhaps, for example, a three-monthly newsletter covering safety issues and accident causes emailed to Tasmanian drivers would help improve driver safety awareness?

As with pilots, drivers should have an easy path to report near-misses.

There are lots of areas where improvements can be effected but the current safety policy gurus seem to have run out of puff.

Peter Turner Sandy Bay

HARD-HITTING CAMPAIGN WHILE my fellow Tasmanian drivers continue to act totally irresponsibly on our roads, please have pity for the editor receiving the letters.

Some of us reckon we can drive like we are at the racetrack in our twotonne metal monsters, throwing them around the corners with parts of their vehicle on the wrong side of the white line to the detriment of fellow road users (sedans do it also), if that is not bad enough, sitting up the rear of the motorist in front of them with the clear intention of intimidation in mind is downright dangerous.

Until such time as every driver accepts the responsibility to drive safely it will matter not one bit about how many millions of dollars that are spent endeavouring to make the roads safer.

Driver education with hard-hitting videos on TV and social media of the results of idiotic, irresponsible driving attitudes highlighting the results will bear more fruit.

It will impact on some of the irresponsible people who drive our roads better than wire ropes ever will. Serious government support of the police to govern traffic visibly and with hefty penalties for breaches will go a long way to reducing road accidents and fatalities.

Ray Marsh Primrose Sands

PHONES IMPAIR DRIVERS KEITH Anderson (“Tackle our fast cars,” Letters, January 7) and David Skegg (“Focus on the roads’ big killer,” Talking Point, January 5) get far too academic and idealistic in their road safety views. Two things affect day-today safety on the roads — speed and inattention, especially with mobile phones. Drivers extend their off-road phone habits to the road — they simply cannot get off them and hands-free solves nothing because tests show that you can lose up to 30 per cent of your cognition having a discussion while driving.

Speed kills, it’s that simple and the almost complete ignorance of orange lights and to some extent red ones these days is a recipe for disaster.

The solution?

Basically, it’s up to individuals while so-called motoring bodies such as RACT do little more than comment on the obvious.

Jack Bell Howrah

SLOW DOWN

THERE have been photographs of horrific vehicle accidents in the Mercury recently.

I would like to take this opportunity of thanking the police and ambulance services who attended a car crash in which I was involved.

I was lucky to survive the accident, and am still coming to terms with the fact that, other than for good fortune, I might now be dead.

This is not intended as a sob story for my own circumstances.

It is an appeal to all drivers on the road to slow down, take care, and have regard for your own safe being and that of others.

Christine Hurley Richmond

CHOPPER SHOCK

I’M amazed the Parks and Wildlife Service has no legal control of helicopter flights over national parks. While emergency search and rescue missions and PWS maintenance trips are expected and infrequent, the intrusion of commercial joy flights are unwanted and unnecessary, destroying the wilderness properties of our natural heritage.

Rob Hill Howrah

DEMOCRACY CARD POLITICS in the good old US of A has now become a card game. Democracy has well and truly just been Trumped.

Brad Rogers Lindisfarne

BIBLICAL MESSAGE

I REMIND the Christian groups who helped Trump become President, and the Republican Party, to read their Bible, specifically Galatians 6.7: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a person sows, that also will he reap,” and Hosea 8.7: “For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” Elizabeth Osborne

North Hobart

SLEEVE COUNTER

COME on Philip Sumner, I’m sure the former premier did more than “roll up his sleeves once” during his time as Liberal leader (Letters, January 6). I vividly remember there was also this 30 degree day back in 2019 …

Stephen Jeffery Sandy Bay

BIG ISSUES

COVID-19, displaced people, starvation, climate change — yet some are concerned about Airbnb. I suppose here if we eat, pray and love everything will work out.

Daryll M. Williams Lenah Valley

ODD VEGIE PRAISE

AS a person who hates wasting food, I am a great supporter of the Odd Bunch products in the supermarkets. While not exactly the perfect shape, still taste the same as the perfectly shaped ones. Much cheaper and great value for those on a budget to buy healthy food.

Di Manser Austins Ferry