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Speaker 1: The RAA says, with the number of lives last and

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Speaker 1: the number of serious injuries this year alone, first six

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Speaker 1: months of twenty twenty four, we've lost forty four people

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Speaker 1: and four hundred and thirty four people. That's a huge

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Speaker 1: number have been seriously injured on our roads the first

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Speaker 1: six months, and that puts us behind in our road targets,

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Speaker 1: the state's road safety strategy. Let's explore that with Charles Mountain,

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Speaker 1: RAA Senior Manager Safety and Infrastructure. Charles, Good morning, Wending Matthew.

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Speaker 1: It is concerning that. Okay, we're better rough I suppose.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds terrible when you talk about lives last,

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Speaker 1: but last year was just terrible. The numbers are below

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Speaker 1: that this year, so an improvement there fortunately, but still

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Speaker 1: forty four, as you say, lives last in the first

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Speaker 1: six months of the year, which is not good.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's correct, and sort of looking at what's happened

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Speaker 2: in the first six months of twenty twenty four, we

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Speaker 2: sort of get the picture that we're not going to

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Speaker 2: be on target to get even close realistically to where

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Speaker 2: we need to be. Bearing in mind we're aiming towards

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Speaker 2: seeing a fifty percent reduction by twenty thirty one in

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Speaker 2: the number of lives lost and thirty percent reduction serious

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Speaker 2: injuries based on the numbers from the average over the

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Speaker 2: five year periods of twenty twenty. So it remains a

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Speaker 2: real concern that we're not seeing the sustained reduction in

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Speaker 2: lives loss and serious injuries that we need to achieve

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Speaker 2: these targets. And bear in mind these are targets now.

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Speaker 2: We're still talking about people losing their lives even if

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Speaker 2: we were to achieve our target by twenty thirty one,

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Speaker 2: So it still is a real point of concern that

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Speaker 2: on the roads people are losing their lives and we're

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Speaker 2: still seeing a lot of serious injuries occurring. I'm particularly

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Speaker 2: relevant at the moment because we're experiencing quite challenging weather conditions.

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Speaker 2: We've had an extended period of wet weather. We've been

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Speaker 2: for a pretty violent time understand on Friday, with very

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Speaker 2: strong winds as well. So these present some additional challenges

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Speaker 2: for people driving, and it does highlight the need to

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Speaker 2: ensure that you know, realistically, whenever we get behind the wheel,

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Speaker 2: and if we're a pedestrian as well, that we do

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Speaker 2: look out for ourselves and other road users.

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Speaker 1: Too. Okay, you're right about people not slowing down. On Monday,

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Speaker 1: was on the Northern Expressway heading out to Waterloo Corner

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Speaker 1: and an ESCI. No one was slowing down. It was

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Speaker 1: pouring down, no one slowing. Cars and trucks whizzing passed

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Speaker 1: and a ESCI came off one slid across the road.

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Speaker 1: I ended up hitting it as it bounced towards me.

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Speaker 1: Couldn't avoid it and it didn't damage the car fortunately,

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Speaker 1: But you know, you just think it's raining, it's wet,

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Speaker 1: the windscreen wipers are going furiously. You can't see further

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Speaker 1: than two hundred meters up the road. If that truck

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Speaker 1: spraying water everywhere, everything going on, no one was slowing down,

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Speaker 1: it's unreal.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's right, And you know, at the end of

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Speaker 2: the day, we talk about what we call safe systems

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Speaker 2: approach to road safety. So we push for safer roads,

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Speaker 2: ongoing investment in the road network to ensure that its

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Speaker 2: condition doesn't contribute to the like with a severity of crashes.

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Speaker 2: We talk about ensuring your vehicle is safe so that

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Speaker 2: you've done all the regular maintenance, you're driving the safest

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Speaker 2: vehicle you possibly can. Ideally it's got a recent five

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Speaker 2: star rating. But at the very least you're maintaining your vehicle,

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Speaker 2: including good tires, breaks, windscreen wipers particularly course this time

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Speaker 2: of year, but your lights on, your driving into the conditions.

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Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, if drivers continue

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Speaker 2: to not do what they can to bring about a

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Speaker 2: reduction in the number of lives loss and serious injuries,

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Speaker 2: then it becomes a particular challenge, and you just say

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Speaker 2: really basic things like driving to the conditions, being aware

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Speaker 2: of your own environment, ensuring how you feel, for example,

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Speaker 2: so like if you don't feel well, then don't embark

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Speaker 2: on a long journey now, either get someone else to

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Speaker 2: drive or simply postpone it. Don't put yourself at risk

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Speaker 2: and other road users by pushing on just because you

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Speaker 2: think you'll be okay, Because unfortunately, what we're seeing is

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Speaker 2: a lot of crashes involving single vehicles potentially are a

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Speaker 2: result of people who perhaps not paid attention to their

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Speaker 2: own capability and wellness at the time when they were driving.

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Speaker 1: So is that what these stats are predominantly single vehicle crashes.

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Speaker 2: This year, there are a lot of both. Single crashes

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Speaker 2: continue to be a significant representa significant portion of life

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Speaker 2: lost in their rose. But what we are seeing, of course,

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Speaker 2: is a very high percentage of a life loss on

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Speaker 2: the regional road network, and to an extent, people driving

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Speaker 2: on these roads are traveling at higher speeds. There is

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Speaker 2: more when things do go wrong, it goes wrong much

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Speaker 2: more quickly, and in many cases the road environment may

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Speaker 2: not be as forgiving as well. So that's why it's

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Speaker 2: really important to ensure that people do as you say,

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Speaker 2: drive to the conditions, not just the speed limit on

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Speaker 2: these roads.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely. It also points to the fact, and there's

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Speaker 1: been a regional road campaign running well, it feels like

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Speaker 1: for years, just reminding people in the regions that most

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Speaker 1: fatalities that occur in the regions are people who live

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Speaker 1: in the regions, not necessarily people from the city who

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Speaker 1: are visiting. And that would be a population based thing,

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Speaker 1: I suppose, But that message seems to be falling on

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Speaker 1: deaf eas so is the advertising working.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think that's always a point to continue to reinforce,

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Speaker 2: and it applies to all of us. You know, we

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Speaker 2: can become complacent if we do the same journey on

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Speaker 2: a regular basis, we can become somewhat immune to what's

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Speaker 2: going on around us. And when things untoward do occur,

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Speaker 2: we may not be as ready or as prepared as

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Speaker 2: we should be to respond appropriately. So that comes back

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Speaker 2: to ensuring we don't put ourselves in that situation. So

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Speaker 2: being complacent is really asking for trouble quite frankly. But

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Speaker 2: also important is we said ensuring a you're not distracted.

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Speaker 2: So that's why there's a lot of attention paid to

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Speaker 2: not using a mobile phone of course while you're driving,

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Speaker 2: but other forms of distraction as well, not fossicking around

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Speaker 2: for things in the car or losing letting your gaze wander,

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Speaker 2: or doing other things that take your attention away from

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Speaker 2: what's happening in front of you. And fatigue is a

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Speaker 2: big player too. So you're traveling long distances at high speed,

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Speaker 2: sometimes we don't appreciate just how demanding that task can be,

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Speaker 2: and so those that's why it's so important to take

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Speaker 2: those regular rest breaks and get out and stretch and

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Speaker 2: give yourself a bit of a refresh, or change drivers

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Speaker 2: if you are traveling longer distances as well. So some

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Speaker 2: really basic messaging, but it can literally be a lifesaver

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Speaker 2: if we do these things.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed, absolutely crash data for determining policies and positions

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Speaker 1: on where we go, add campaigns all the rest of it.

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Speaker 1: Is it timely? Does it come out quickly enough for

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Speaker 1: a response to be there in front of people within

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Speaker 1: a short period of time.

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Speaker 2: Look, that's obviously been a long term issue for both

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Speaker 2: ourselves and also the Australian Automobile Association is pushing for

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Speaker 2: this at a national level to ensure that all jurisdictions

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Speaker 2: report on crashes and serious injuries in a timely matter,

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Speaker 2: but also in a consistent manner as well, because we

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Speaker 2: do know that states and territories do record, for example,

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Speaker 2: serious injuries in a different way, so that makes sometimes

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Speaker 2: state to state comparison somewhat more difficult. But yes, the

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Speaker 2: timliness is really important, and understanding factors that contributing to

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Speaker 2: the crashes as well, such as whether are other conditions

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Speaker 2: or other factors that we're not immediately obvious that may

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Speaker 2: have contributed. So that helps a to ensure that the

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Speaker 2: messaging that goes out is accurate, but also that helps

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Speaker 2: to focus in on where resources can be most effectively

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Speaker 2: allocated to essentially get end up with a safer road

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Speaker 2: network and safer drivers.

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Speaker 1: And the road you talk about the roads not being

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Speaker 1: forgiving out in the regional areas. There's been a long

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Speaker 1: period of contention about just how poor some of our

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Speaker 1: roads around the state are, particularly origionally.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's right, I mean to be fair, how a

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Speaker 2: lot of work has been done. You know, we've just

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Speaker 2: come back from a drive up through to Melrose the

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Speaker 2: other week, for example. Enormous amount of work has been

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Speaker 2: done on the Horror Highway, for example, and that is

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Speaker 2: now a good safe drive providing everyone does the correct thing.

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Speaker 2: So there has been some good investment. What this does

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Speaker 2: highlight is where money is invested, it brings about not

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Speaker 2: just an improvement in the quality of the road, but

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Speaker 2: demonstrable improvements in the level of safety. So we talk

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Speaker 2: a lot about the star rating of the roads, for example,

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Speaker 2: So if you're traveling consistently on roads which offer an

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Speaker 2: equivalent safety rating of three stars or better than, the

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Speaker 2: likelihood of you being involved in a serious crash is

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Speaker 2: dramatically red compared to one star road. And if we

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Speaker 2: think a lot of regional one star type roads, of

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Speaker 2: the roads which have no shoulders, they might have trees

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Speaker 2: very close to the edge of the road with no protection,

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Speaker 2: and they might have very poor site distance to approaching intersections,

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Speaker 2: and quite undulating a road alignment as well, so those

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Speaker 2: factors can make those roads potentially significantly more dangerous.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed, trails always appreciate your time. Thank you, Thanks

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Speaker 1: very much, Matthew Chrail's Mountain there from the RAA