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Speaker 1: What to talk about idiots on our roads, because on

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Speaker 1: TV News last night, two stories back to back make

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Speaker 1: you really sit back and think about the idiots we

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Speaker 1: share our roads with, people who don't give a stuff

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Speaker 1: about the rest of us. The first was the sentencing

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Speaker 1: of a bloke called Travis Turner, who hit a cyclist

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Speaker 1: Sonja Mouse, on Churchill Road at Kilburn early one morning

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Speaker 1: in February last year. She was left with a bleed

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Speaker 1: on the brain, a shuttered jaw, and multiple other fractures.

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Speaker 1: Turner stopped his van, ran back, said to another motorist

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Speaker 1: who stopped, she doesn't look too good, does she? Then

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Speaker 1: he got back in his van went off, changed over

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Speaker 1: the bumper bar, the grill and the number plates. Took

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Speaker 1: a while for him to be tracked down a few weeks,

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Speaker 1: but when he was arrested. He has been in custody since.

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Speaker 1: He copped a three and a half year sentence yesterday,

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Speaker 1: will be eligible for release with time already served in

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Speaker 1: about a year. Sonja Mouse is victim incredibly generous, thanking

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Speaker 1: the rah and saypole and said Turner. She hopes Turner

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Speaker 1: gets the help he needs. See Turner was just another

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Speaker 1: disqualified driver who doesn't feel any need to obey the law.

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Speaker 1: He said he'd fully be letting his boss down if

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Speaker 1: he stopped driving. Don't worry about what the magistrate said.

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Speaker 1: He notched up almost thirty driving offenses over his driving

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Speaker 1: career by the time he hit this poor woman, telling

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Speaker 1: the court he was reaching for a can of soft

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Speaker 1: drink when he veered into a bike lane. She was

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Speaker 1: decked out in fluo. Did everything possible to be seen,

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Speaker 1: so he'll be eligible for release, as I said, in

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Speaker 1: about a year. He has a ten year driving ban,

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Speaker 1: hopefully for him, not when the accident occurred, so you

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Speaker 1: know three years gone or two years gone already, it'll

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Speaker 1: be nearly three. Do you think you'll drive again inside

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Speaker 1: ten years or seven or whatever's left of that. You

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Speaker 1: hope he won't, But given his appalling driving hist what

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Speaker 1: are the chances. The very next story was about a

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Speaker 1: twenty thirty two year old woman, Amy Marie Hall, and

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Speaker 1: she hit a posty Andrew Brown, who was riding a motorbike.

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Speaker 1: She hid him from the rear slammed into him before

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Speaker 1: also leaving the scene. He was seriously injured, as he'd

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Speaker 1: expect in the crash on Anzac Highway. It occurred two

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Speaker 1: years ago, suffered a broken neck, severe concussion, had fluid

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Speaker 1: leaking from his brain. He can't do his job anymore

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Speaker 1: because of his injuries. In fact, his license is the

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Speaker 1: one that was suspended as a result of his injuries.

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Speaker 1: Lost his license. Unlike Turner, Amy Marie Hall doesn't go

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Speaker 1: to jail. Seems she had a better driving record. Wasn't

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Speaker 1: bad enough? How bad does it need to be? This

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Speaker 1: man can't resume working, at least not in that job anyway.

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Speaker 1: He says he's not the same happy person he was

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Speaker 1: and he misses who were used to be. That's what

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Speaker 1: he told the court. She has a two year good

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Speaker 1: behavior bond, and like Turner, she copped a ten year

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Speaker 1: driving ban. Now put what courts take into accounting sentencing

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Speaker 1: to one side. This disqualified driving luk. This is where

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Speaker 1: we need jail to be absolutely enforced, not as an

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Speaker 1: option a magistrate can choose. Because I've sat in courts

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Speaker 1: waiting for someone to come up who's done something terrible,

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Speaker 1: and you're there to report on that, and while you're waiting,

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Speaker 1: all these other people get caught, called up for various things,

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Speaker 1: and in the dot go shoplifters and people, yes, who

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Speaker 1: have been caught drink driving and the magistrate says, I'm

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Speaker 1: suspending your license for X amount, and I want you

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Speaker 1: to understand, if you're court driving while your license is suspended,

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Speaker 1: you run the risk of going to jail. Well, it

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Speaker 1: seems they rarely ever do. So what we need it's

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Speaker 1: for jail to be an absolute non option that if

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Speaker 1: you're caught, not something the magistrate can choose because it's

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Speaker 1: vital for your job or whatever the case may be.

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Speaker 1: If you're caught driving while you're disqualified from holding a

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Speaker 1: license for any period, then if you think you can

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Speaker 1: ignore the court, you go to jail for a month minimum.

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Speaker 1: Next time two months, the third time three months. There'd

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Speaker 1: be people today who'd be behind jail for a year

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Speaker 1: or more. Now this week, just a couple of days ago,

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Speaker 1: on the twenty second, when was that yesterday? Just yesterday,

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Speaker 1: SAPA put out a media release calling on people not

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Speaker 1: to mistake our roads for a racetrack. Now. I don't

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Speaker 1: know what's in their water, but no hoon driver is

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Speaker 1: making that mistake. It's not accidental, it's deliberate because the

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Speaker 1: people who do it are idiots. It is as simple

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Speaker 1: as that. So this isn't the racetrack. Oh I thought

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Speaker 1: I was on the OTR tailor ben No, sir, this

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Speaker 1: is Victoria Road at Osborne. I mean, who mistakes any

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Speaker 1: road for a racetrack, apart from someone who doesn't care.

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Speaker 1: Here's the result of the police operation that prompted that

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Speaker 1: media release in that headline. Between the thirteenth and nineteenth

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Speaker 1: of May, police conducted statewide Operation Safe Speed. Two lives

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Speaker 1: were lost during the period. Eleven road users were seriously injured.

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Speaker 1: While the operation was underway. Police detected eight hundred and

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Speaker 1: forty six speed offenses. Last time they ran this twelve

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Speaker 1: hundred and ninety in November twenty three. That's the only

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Speaker 1: positive fewer speeding offenses of those that they've nabbed. The

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Speaker 1: eight forty six, five hundred and two were xpated, they

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Speaker 1: were arrested or reported. I don't know what happens to

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Speaker 1: the other. Three hundred odd two drivers lost their license

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Speaker 1: for driving at excessive speed of over forty five k's

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Speaker 1: an hour, one driver for driving at an extreme speed

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Speaker 1: over fifty five k's an hour. Now the fifth mobile

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Speaker 1: phone camera has been switched on. Now today the trial

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Speaker 1: will last until mid September before fines are issued. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if Amy Marie Hall was on her phone

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Speaker 1: or like Travis Turner, reaching for a can of soft drink,

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Speaker 1: which is what he told the court. But if the

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Speaker 1: cameras catch people on their phones while they're driving, then

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Speaker 1: Stiff chedder pay the fine. In fact, we don't have

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Speaker 1: enough of them to catch all the morons on the

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Speaker 1: roads doing stupid stuff. Put one up on every stoby pole.

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Speaker 1: I say you worried about privacy, Well, if you're not

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Speaker 1: doing anything wrong, you don't have anything to be worried about.

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Speaker 1: Somebody hacks the cameras, Stiff, so what they're going to

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Speaker 1: catch people driving by picking their nose will be due.

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Speaker 1: If you're on your phone, if you're speeding, if you're

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Speaker 1: an idiot, cop the fine, and potentially if you're disqualified.

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Speaker 1: Hopefully they can pick this up too. Go to bloody jail.

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Speaker 1: Talking about some of the people we share the roads

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Speaker 1: with this morning, after two were sentenced yesterday in our courts,

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Speaker 1: both given ten year driving bands, suspended license, canceled license,

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Speaker 1: call it what you will, but off the roads for

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Speaker 1: ten years. Do you think they'll stick to that? Given

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Speaker 1: the spade of people who seem not to including one

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Speaker 1: of the people yesterday who well disqualified hit a cyclist,

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Speaker 1: leaving her on the side of the road with quite

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Speaker 1: serious injuries multiple fractures, shattered jaw, bleeding on the brain.

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Speaker 1: She spent a considerable time in hospital and can't believe

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Speaker 1: her husband particularly can't believe she was just abandoned by

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Speaker 1: a man who stopped, got out of the car, walk back,

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Speaker 1: said to another driver, she doesn't look good, does She

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Speaker 1: gets back in the car and drives off. Just appalling

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Speaker 1: and so many texts in this regard. Already need more

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Speaker 1: jail accommodation. Police think it's not popular to build jails,

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Speaker 1: but in the present climate, I think it'll be very welcome,

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Speaker 1: so these people can be imprisoned where they belong. Right lane,

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Speaker 1: says Paul, is not the fast lane for speeding. The

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Speaker 1: speed limit is still the speed limit. The Port Expressway

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Speaker 1: is a racetrack, idiots racing each other. Michael O'Connor, Victim's icon,

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Speaker 1: ll rather victim's Advocate, a long time in the position

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Speaker 1: as Commissioner the Victims Rights Here in South Australia, now

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Speaker 1: an advocate for victims. Michael good Morning, it's we've talked

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Speaker 1: about this before, but just appalling the attitudes of some

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Speaker 1: people on the roads to others.

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Speaker 2: Well, it might you. It's despicable. We've got these people

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Speaker 2: on the road way who and I have to emp

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Speaker 2: size having a driver's licenses a privilege, who've breached that privilege,

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Speaker 2: who've been sentenced by a court more than one occasion,

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Speaker 2: and simply, to put it literally, just stick their finger

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Speaker 2: up and say, we're not going to heed the warning

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Speaker 2: that we might go to prison. In fact, we're just

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Speaker 2: going to keep driving. We're going to keep putting other

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Speaker 2: people's lives at risk. It's about time that we had

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Speaker 2: mandatory in prison for those people who just continually each

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Speaker 2: the court's order, in my humble view, is contemptuous and

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Speaker 2: it's contemportous to the court, is contemporous to the public

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Speaker 2: at large who want to be safe on our own way.

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Speaker 1: Well this is it. I mean, if a court says

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Speaker 1: you're going to jail, you can't just say no, I'm

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Speaker 1: not because they're going to take you away right there

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Speaker 1: and then. So there's no difference between a court saying

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Speaker 1: you can't drive. It's up to you to abide by

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Speaker 1: that sure, but otherwise if you don't, well it's a

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Speaker 1: slippery slope. And without sort of exaggerating it, it's a

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Speaker 1: slippery slope to anarchy, isn't it. Courts are there to

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Speaker 1: impose sentences some people who do the wrong thing.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's right. And some of these people we're not

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Speaker 2: talking about people who, for example, drove the most car

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Speaker 2: while they're disqualified because a child has a medical emergency

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Speaker 2: or something similar. We're talking, for example, the last time

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Speaker 2: we spoke about this, we were talking about someone who

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Speaker 2: killed someone having driven around the corner. It less time

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Speaker 2: to squalify it, just simply to pick up some takeaway

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Speaker 2: food or similar. These are people who are not only

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Speaker 2: saying to the court, we don't care about your warning

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Speaker 2: that we might go to prison, but they're saying to

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Speaker 2: other people on a roadway, we don't care about the rules.

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Speaker 2: We're going to breach them. It's about time that those

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Speaker 2: people who won't to buy by the rules saw bars

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Speaker 2: spent some time in prison, and perhaps after that had

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Speaker 2: been done to two or three people, the message might

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Speaker 2: get out that this is not the right thing to do.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw Sonya Mouse on the news, yesterday.

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Speaker 1: She's the woman on the bike who was hit by

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Speaker 1: Travis Turner, and I thought she was so gracious in

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Speaker 1: what she had to say. She thanks say Paul. She

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Speaker 1: thanked the staff at the Royal Adelaide Hospital for looking

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Speaker 1: after her, and she said, I hope he gets the

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Speaker 1: help he needs. I thought, given what he had done

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Speaker 1: to her and how he all but claimed her life,

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Speaker 1: she was left critically injured by the side of the

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Speaker 1: road with a brain bleed amongst other serious injuries, could

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Speaker 1: have ended you know, certainly life threatening. And that was

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Speaker 1: her response. I thought, that is actually quite good of her.

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Speaker 1: You've seen it from all aspects, I suppose, as a

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Speaker 1: police officer, as commissioner, and now as an advocate. But

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Speaker 1: it must never surprise you how people have different responses

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Speaker 1: to these things.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's right. Each individual is unique and the way

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Speaker 2: they respond is Many victims are actually quite gracious and

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Speaker 2: do recognize that people make mistakes, but on the other hand,

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Speaker 2: they also don't want other people to suffer the way

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Speaker 2: that they have suffered. So it is important that the

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Speaker 2: sentence reflects the harm that has been done, but also

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Speaker 2: ensures that community safety as a paramount consideration and the

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Speaker 2: problem from a victim perspective sometimes is that they don't

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Speaker 2: know the criminal history of some of these people. To

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Speaker 2: them as a victims, this is their one offlication that

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Speaker 2: they've been victimized by this person. And yet, as we've

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Speaker 2: seen in the past, there have been situations where people

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Speaker 2: have five, six, seven, eleven times previously been disqualified. So

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Speaker 2: in those situations, those people have been given their second,

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Speaker 2: the third, the fourth chance to show they can abide

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Speaker 2: by the law. And when all is said and done,

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Speaker 2: the punishment is for the benefit of the community at

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Speaker 2: large as well as to address the harm that's been

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Speaker 2: done to the victim. So we have to put this

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Speaker 2: into a perspective of balance, protecting other road users as

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Speaker 2: well as respecting the view that each individual victim has.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, Michael really appreciate your time this morning. Thank you

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Speaker 1: so much.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: Michael O'Connell there who is a victim's advocate, former commissioner

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Speaker 1: for victim's former police officer, and has dealt with certainly

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Speaker 1: victims of road crashes, amongst other terrible crimes across the

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Speaker 1: state of as well