Police’s public plea

FATAL CRASH: Superintendent Campbell Hill has warned motorists to drive safely following a spate of fatal crashes this year. Photo: Elisabeth Champion

Elisabeth Champion

Limestone Coast Police are pleading with local motorists to pay more attention on the road, and encouraging people to report bad driver behaviour.

The message comes after what has been a horror year on the roads in the Limestone Coast, with eight fatalities since January.

Limestone Coast Superintendent Campbell Hill said road safety is everyone’s responsibility, with a majority of crashes being caused by driver error.

“In a broad brush term, what I can say with factual basis behind it is that we know that there’s a high rate of speed, there’s inattention, there’s driving without due care, all of those fatal five driver behaviours that we talk about all the time,“ he said.

“All of those things that contribute to fatal driver behaviour, we are seeing time over time and every time we have to go to one of these collisions, every time our volunteer emergency services are called out from either their work or their rest at home or being at the sporting clubs to go out and be confronted with another fatal and or serious injury collision, there is going to be an element of the fatal five driver behaviour there.

“The sheer fact is if everybody drives to their abilities, if they drive to their fatigue levels and stop and have those breaks every couple of hours on the long drive, If they’re not speeding, if they’re wearing seatbelts, if they’re not drinking drunk driving, they will get to their destination safely.

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen in a very short space of time, several Limestone Coast residents that haven’t made it to where they were going on any particular day.“

The latest fatality was a local driver who was killed on Sunday at Padthaway after his ute collided with a tree, and Supt Hill said a majority of people killed on Limestone Coast roads were locals.

“Out of those [eight fatalities], we’ve had two people who were interstate residents, so they were visitors to the region that have died, the remaining six all lived, worked and existed in the Limestone Coast, and as a result, we’ve got six families, six sets of friends, six communities all intertwined who are all grieving and trying to come to terms with the loss,“ he said.

While drivers have a responsibility to drive safely, Supt Hill said family and friends also have an obligation to report bad driving behaviour.

“Inevitably, we are speaking to people who are saying, ’Oh, we’re not surprised. It was a matter of time. They always took that backroad, they were always at the pub on a Friday night, they always thought they got away with it.

“When they get the knock on the door from the police, it’s not a surprise to people.

“Now that just infuriates us because what we know is that there are people in the community who are bystanders to this dangerous driving.

“If we were talking about people that were going out to commit sexual assault in the community, if we’re talking about people that were going out to murder people in the community, I’ve got no doubt that these same bystanders would be contacting the police to say there is a risk to community safety.

“There is no difference between these people who know that there are people that are using drugs and recklessly driving every weekend, going out and doing burnouts or driving drunk from the local sporting club.

“It’s the same thing that they are allowing and being a bystander to, allowing people to go out on the road with the potential that they’re going to kill either themselves or innocent like road users, or family coming down the street.

“We’ve seen it we’ve seen people of all ages, all demographic, all walks of life, people get impacted. Now we need people to wake up and get on board to the fact that this is a real thing. It comes at a cost of community. And it comes at a cost to families, friends, relatives, volunteer emergency services, paid emergency services, it is a big problem.

“Those bystanders really need to have a think about the part they’re playing in keeping not only their mates and their family and friends safe, but everybody else in the community as well.“