TUESDAY marked the end of a horror year on South Australian roads, which included 12 “lives lost” as a result of road crashes in the Limestone Coast.
It is the second year in a row the Limestone Coast has had double-figure road crash fatalities, which is a large jump on the five fatalities in 2017.
While each fatal crash sends shockwaves through the community and leaves families and friends devastated, the figure for 2019 remained above the four-year average of eight fatalities in the region.
Police officer in charge of the local service area, Superintendent Phil Hoff said the tragedies were made more disappointing by the ongoing detection of poor driver behaviour across the region.
Despite the ongoing messages and broadcasting of fatal crashes, Supt Hoff said people were still not heeding the warnings.
“I’m sure I can speak for all my staff in the fact that not only are we incredibly sad, we are incredibly angry that people just continually flout the law,” Supt Hoff said.
“Time and time again we have to go and mop up these terrible crashes and we see the carnage up front, while it’s still raw.”
The most recent death occurred at Long Beach at Kingston on December 22 when a car rolled, killing a 22-year-old Victorian woman.
A 29-year-old man from Portland, Victoria, was admitted to the Mount Gambier Hospital where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries.
He has since been charged with causing death by dangerous driving.
“It’s just a tragedy, it was a preventable death and the way that vehicle was being driven has raised some serious concerns,” Supt Hoff said.
“I was driving along a beach at Nene Valley on my day off and the speed limit on the beach is 25kph – why would you want to go any faster than that?”
Even in light of the fatal crash, several people were still detected driving with blood alcohol or drugs in their system over the Christmas and New Year period.
“I was on the front of the paper and I told people they could expect to be breath tested during this period, so it would not have been a surprise to anyone,” Supt Hoff said.
“We are incredibly disappointed – if you drink drive, you’re a bloody idiot.”
Supt Hoff’s disappointment follows yesterday’s launch of a new drug driving campaign, aimed at curbing the unacceptable behaviour on our roads.
The campaign – named Long after the high is gone – highlights the fact drugs can remain in a person’s system for quite some time after being consumed and continue to impair their ability to drive.
Alarmingly, one in nine people drug tested on South Australian roads test positive for drugs with 24pc of fatalities on the state’s roads involving drugs.
Police and Emergency Services Minister Corey Wingard has used the launch of the new campaign to plead with South Australians to take care on our roads in 2020.
“2019 was a truly shocking year on South Australian roads – too many lives were lost,” Mr Wingard said.
“Every death on our road is a family member who will be forever missed, a community who will never be the same again and futures not being lived.
“As a state and as a community, we cannot go on like this and I urge everyone in 2020 to think every single time they drive on our roads.”
Mr Wingard congratulated SAPOL on the launch of the new campaign, reiterating they were the best equipped to create them.
“There is no doubt that SAPOL are the best people to be creating and advising government on these types of campaigns, they are on the front-line every single day dealing with the issues on our roads,” he said.
The first of the advertisements will air this Sunday.
