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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-11-27 Daily Xml
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World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (16:46): I move:

That this house—

(a) notes that World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims is 17 November;

(b) expresses its deepest condolences to the families, friends and loved ones of the people who have lost their lives and suffered serious injuries on South Australian roads;

(c) recognises that the emotional trauma experienced by family and friends of road traffic victims is often devastating and ongoing; and

(d) acknowledges the ongoing efforts made by South Australia Police, communities and all other relevant organisations committed to reducing road deaths.

This motion recognises the finality of a road crash and what that can bring. It recognises the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, which is observed on the third Sunday of November each year and this year it was on 17 November. Over the last 30 years, more than 44,000 lives have been lost on Australian roads, and hundreds of thousands have been hospitalised.

This year, Australians were asked to reflect and remember all the lives impacted by road trauma by lighting a candle at home. By reflecting on and remembering road trauma victims, it is hopeful that this could inspire others to make the change to prevent more loss of life. On World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, it is also important to pay tribute to the dedicated first responders and medical professionals who deal with the after-effect of the trauma of road crashes on a daily basis.

The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims was started by RoadPeace in 1993, and in 2005 the United Nations endorsed it as a global day, as the appropriate acknowledgement for victims of road traffic injuries and their families. Since then, the World Day of Remembrance has been observed and promoted worldwide by many governments, international agencies and groups.

As I said at the start, for many it is final. It is their last breath or a road of recovery or a life of permanent disablement. It is the wrong turn at the wrong location, it is another driver who recklessly chooses to get behind the wheel experiencing impairment, who drives too fast, is checking their phone instead of paying attention or who is under the influence of drugs or alcohol. This year, SAPOL launched their road safety campaign with the message 'Drink drivers are full of it,' which aims to confront the selfish choices that fuel drink-driving offences. It comes from SA Police research findings that show drink drivers are taking themselves for a ride. The innovative campaign features a drink driver's vehicle filling with beer or wine—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Will members on my left, please, either keep their voices a bit down or leave the chamber.

Ms HUTCHESSON: The innovative campaign features a drink driver's vehicle filling with beer or wine. Its aim—to send a new message that leaves drink drivers with nowhere to run. Police hear all sorts of excuses, that people can handle their alcohol or do not want to have to pay for a cab, but when it comes down to it, it is because they are selfish. They are choosing to get in a car that could be a deadly weapon, and they are making that choice. Between 2019 and 2023, 17 per cent of all fatal crashes and 10 per cent of serious injury crashes involved at least one driver or a rider with a blood alcohol concentration over the legal limit.

Crash statistics and expiation data indicate a demographic skew towards male drivers between the ages of 20 to 29 and 30 to 39. Young men often feel like they are invincible—and I should know, I have one at home; although fortunately he has mum-Uber always available. They do feel like it will not happen to them, though. Somehow they are above the statistics. Unfortunately, there are loved ones grieving who would think otherwise. Those who are left behind to grieve kissed their loved ones goodbye before they left, not knowing that it would be the last time they saw their partner, their kids, their parents or their loved one alive.

This motion serves as an opportunity to express our condolences to these family and friends who can no longer hold their loved ones, see their smile or hear their laugh. For them, the effect is lifelong. Not only can this have an impact on their mental health but also their financial wellbeing if the one they lost contributed to their family's financial stability. The impact is long-lasting.

As a parent of a child who lost his father at four years old, the hole in your heart they leave behind never mends. No matter how long ago, it can never be filled. The impact is life-changing. We must do all we can to help educate and to help remind to create muscle memory when people get in the car. This year, we launched a campaign emphasising the importance of wearing your seatbelt. Not correctly wearing a seatbelt is one of the fatal five causes of trauma on our roads alongside speeding, distractions, drink and drug driving, and dangerous road users.

In 2023, not wearing a seatbelt contributed to 10 per cent of deaths on South Australia's roads, while nearly 3,000 people received fines. In last year's state budget, our government committed $98 million towards road-safety initiatives, with a further $168 million joint package between the South Australian and commonwealth governments. In some instances, road crashes are preventable and in others it really is just an accident.

To mark National Road Safety Week this year, the Department of Infrastructure and Transport released a social media video featuring powerful interviews with road-crash survivors, reminding everyone to make safe and responsible decisions while on the road. 22-year-old Holly Scott from the Adelaide Hills relived her worst moment when her car collided with a tree and she was trapped. She was only a few minutes away from her destination. The force of the impact left her with critical injuries and her car barely recognisable. While her physical injuries have healed, the trauma and anxiety has never gone away. After a month in hospital, Holly had to learn how to walk again and was determined to use her experience and her story to educate others about the importance of road safety.

Holly spoke about the line of emergency service vehicles along the road who were there to help rescue her—police, ambulance and firefighters all doing what they could to save her life. Our first responders who arrive on the scene of an accident are also impacted by what they see. It is traumatic for them too and, in the case of accidents in the Hills, in small country areas, first responders often know their victim. This is especially difficult—whether it is a child of their friends, their own family member, a workmate or someone on the same football team—the trauma is far-reaching.

These emergency responders, many of whom are often volunteers, do what they can to not only try and save lives but also comfort loved ones who arrive on the scene. They have to deal with onlookers and, more recently, those who want to have their minute of fame on social media by trying to get the best pictures. These pictures are so damaging. Imagine a loved one scrolling through their feed to see a picture of their child's car in a crumpled mess before they have even been made aware or had time to even inform family members. It is not okay, and I ask everyone to think twice before posting, before getting in the way of our emergency services. Just don't do it.

Our first responders are completely engulfed by the trauma and I would like to acknowledge them, thank them and let them know that we appreciate them. Last year, the CFS Road Crash Rescue was expanded in the Adelaide Hills to include the agency's first heavy rescue vehicle, which has the capacity to relocate vehicles, shortening the time it takes to receive potentially life-saving medical treatment.

Specifically built by firefighters for firefighters the heavy rescue vehicle can respond to complex vehicle accidents, including specialist and heavy vehicle incidents. With the freeway not far away and the regional roads that carry heavy trucks this is an important addition to the fleet. The heavy rescue vehicle is located at the Lobethal brigade who provide a specialist response across the Adelaide Hills. Additional locations for the rollout of further vehicles are being identified through research into CFS response and road network data.

Our first responders do not only help after an accident. The South Australian police communities and other relevant organisations continue to do what they can to educate to try to get the message through. In 2019 SAPOL's message was: 'Think about who you will leave behind', and I spoke earlier about their campaign for this year: 'Full of it'.

As a government we need to do what we can to help. South Australia's Road Safety Action Plan is a rolling three-year action plan which is reviewed annually. It sets out the government's actions to achieve its 10-year target to reduce lives lost by 50 per cent and serious injuries by 30 per cent, in line with the Road Safety Strategy to 2031 and the National Road Safety Action Plan 2023-25.

The action plan has 10 central themes: schools and local places; public transport, cycling and walking; motorcyclists; Aboriginal road users; road user behaviour; road safety in the workplace; regional and remote areas; heavy vehicles; vehicles and technology; and research and data. No death or serious injury on our roads is acceptable or inevitable and we need to work together to address the trauma caused by the everyday use of our road network. The action plan reflects evidenced-based safe system practices to protect our communities, with a focus on actions that will progressively transform our road network and bring about cultural change in road user behaviour.

The MFS also have helped to educate our community and in particular our younger drivers, or those who are even yet to get their licence through their RAP program. MFS firefighters attend our senior schools and share their own experience and give an open and honest insight into the experience of firefighters working in road crash rescue, providing a hard-hitting realistic insight into road trauma. RAP's efforts seek to actively engage and empower drivers and other road users through positive peer pressure, and its core message is: 'You get to choose the risk, but you don't get to choose the consequences'.

In May this year I had the very confronting experience of attending the Get Home Safe Foundation presentation that was delivered to students at St John's Grammar, with our Minister for Road Safety. It was very interesting to see the faces of the students as they were taken through a conversation about the risks when they get on the road. They were told to drive like you have to stop. As a parent it is also confronting and a reminder that you can't be there but you can help them understand the risk. Darren Davis from the foundation presented to the parents of the students at a separate session, telling them what they had told their kids and then reminding them that their kids are always watching them and learning driver behaviour from them. It was a powerful conversation and a wake-up call for many of the room, especially in terms of using their mobile phones.

Earlier this month our government launched the new Workplace Road Safety Guide, a guide for employers and workers. The guide outlines steps employers and workers can take to support safer driving on the job, providing tools and resources to minimise risk and ensure road safety is a priority at work. In South Australia road incidents accounted for around half—36 of the 73 work-related deaths from 2019 to 2023 and 11 of the 17 lives lost last year. The guide developed aims to get employers thinking about how they manage risk and improve road safety outcomes for their staff and the wider community. Every worker deserves to get home safe and employers need to ensure that clear responsibilities and reporting measures are in place.

Be they drivers, passengers, pedestrians, motorcyclists or cyclists, their lives are precious. They are that person to someone else. Today we honour those whom we have lost and we send our condolences to those they have left behind and offer our thoughts and well wishes to those who have survived but are forever impacted by what they experienced. I ask everyone to slow down, to resist the urge to check your phone, to drive to the conditions, to think about your family and to drive safely, because somebody loves you and they will be heartbroken to have to open the door to the worst news one can receive. I ask that this motion be supported by all here today and we remember all who have not made it home.

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (16:59): I rise to support this motion introduced by the member for Waite, noting that World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims was marked on 17 November. I would like to join with the member for Waite to add my deepest condolences to the families, friends and loved ones of all of those who have suffered serious injuries or lost their lives on South Australian roads and also to recognise the emotional trauma experienced by family and friends of road traffic victims, which, as the motion recognises, is devastating and often ongoing. I think we often look at road traffic victim statistics and see them as just that, statistics and numbers, but behind each of those statistics and numbers is a life. It is someone's son or daughter, it is someone's mother or father, and that pain that is felt by those who are left behind is truly devastating, is truly ongoing.

This year South Australia has seen 80 road deaths to date. One life lost on our roads is too many; 80 is too many. Every life that we lose on our roads is indeed a tragedy. I want to take this opportunity to also acknowledge, as the motion does, the efforts made by South Australia Police and our local communities and all the other relevant organisations committed to reducing road deaths, whether they be the MFS and the CFS, the SES, all of our first responders, for not only all of the work they do to try to prevent deaths on our roads but the very difficult job of being the first people to show up when there is a crisis, when there is a tragedy. It is not easy work, and it is often not acknowledged enough, so I commend them for all the work they do.

As the shadow minister for road safety, I have had the opportunity to meet with a number of these groups and hear about the important work that they perform in our community and also many other road safety stakeholder groups, whether it is the RAA, Darren Davis at the Get Home Safe Foundation or whether it is the Motorcycle Riders' Association, which I met with just last week. Often these are teams of volunteers who work tirelessly to try to prevent a loss of life on our roads, so I commend them for all the work that they do in promoting road safety.

Can I perhaps conclude, with the end of year and festive season approaching, by giving a reminder to everyone to take care on our roads and do the right thing. Please slow down, please stick to the rules and please make sure that you get home, and you get home safely. I thank the member for Waite for introducing this motion. It is one of those motions where there is certainly support amongst the entire parliament for promoting road safety and expressing our condolences for those who have suffered injury or lost their life. I commend the motion to the house.

Motion carried.

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