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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-14 Daily Xml
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Road Safety

The Hon. B.R. HOOD (15:40): I rise today to speak about the devastating and growing concern about regional road safety. Today, the current road fatalities for 2023 sit at 59, fast approaching last year's total of 71 deaths for the entire year. I am appalled at these statistics. As a state, we must do better to protect those who are using our road network or bear the responsibility for ongoing deaths. The all too familiar Facebook community news post sharing another tragic fatality has pushed a regional community to petition for change.

On 27 May 2023, a change.org petition was created by Megan Quick called 'Grant Safe Country Roads for SA'. Already, 6,266 signatures support this petition and it is growing daily. I want to assure our local communities that their outcry has been heard. Campaigns such as 'Selfish Prick', 'Speeders come out of nowhere' and 'No-one's driving if you're distracted' are insufficient at reducing the road death toll. The government's recently announced road safety initiative of $10 million over four years for rural roads is simply not enough either.

I stand in support of the 'Enough is enough' message. Enough is enough of the poor standard of many regional roads. Enough is enough of losing more lives, especially young ones on South Australian roads. Young drivers from rural South Australia are up to three times more likely to die or be seriously injured in a road crash. Within these statistics, a significant cohort are those who travel for education or to access services unavailable in the regions.

Between 2017 and 2021, 43 per cent of drivers killed or seriously injured on rural roads were aged between 16 and 24. When speaking on this topic, I cannot help but think about my 16-year-old daughter who has just entered this eight-year increased risk. I am terrified at the thought of my daughter making up these statistics, and I am sure many can relate. Teenagers and young people should not have to face their friends' funerals. Parents should never be confronted with their child's death due to driving.

I support the shadow minister for infrastructure and transport's call for the government to form a bipartisan road safety summit. We need a targeted approach to reduce these statistics and implement proactive and preventative measures where current methods fall short.

There are few survivors of serious road crashes but as a survivor, Holly Scott, SAPOL's first road safety ambassador, actively shares the hard lessons with young drivers to change the mindset of our youth. These youth are more susceptible to the fatal five: speeding, drunk and drug driving, distraction, dangerous road use and not wearing a seatbelt.

We must seriously consider programs such as defensive driving courses, which teach high-level vehicle control skills and train drivers in various weather and road conditions. The standard hazard-perception simulation test does not protect drivers from real-world hazards, but we know that defensive driving courses reduce the risk of collision and develop better drivers by testing them in controlled hazardous environments.

While South Australia continues its upward trajectory, other states are declining and we must ask ourselves: what are we doing wrong? What can we do to fix it? Innovative approaches, such as those used by company Save a Life Australia, should be more widely implemented across the state. Save a Life Australia uses virtual reality driving simulation that exposes the user and those watching on screen to the dangers of inattentive driving. This exposure can be confronting to young people, and I say, good; it needs to be.

The message to our young people, in fact every South Australian, must be the confronting and cold, hard reality of what it means to be another fatality on our roads, what it means to cause a death through reckless driving, what it means to leave behind devastated family and friends. The loss of 59 lives is 59 lives too many. In closing, I wish to extend my deepest condolences to the heartbroken families, friends and communities of the 59 people who have lost their lives on our roads this year. May they rest in peace.

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