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Speaker 1: We're not just seeing anti social behavior in that location.

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Speaker 1: We also know over the course of the weekend well

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Speaker 1: Saint John Ambulance offices have once again been subjected to

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Speaker 1: some really poor behavior. At about eleven thirty on Saturday night,

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Speaker 1: after receiving a triple zero call, they attended to an

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Speaker 1: incident in Molden in Palmerston. Now, when the crew arrived

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Speaker 1: they had a male who climbed on top of the

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Speaker 1: ambulance and the officers couldn't get out of the vehicle.

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Speaker 1: So that was quite distressing and concerning for those paramedics.

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Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line right now is Andrew

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Speaker 1: Thomas from Saint John. Good morning to you, Andrew.

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Speaker 2: Morning.

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Speaker 1: Not too bad. Now, Andrew, tell us exactly what happened

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Speaker 1: on Saturday night with this situation where someone's climbed on

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Speaker 1: top of the vehicle, the you know, the the ambulance

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Speaker 1: and the paramedics not able to get out to help.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, it's unfortunate, you know, But from what we

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Speaker 2: understand is the crew responded to a case there and

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Speaker 2: when they arrived at a gentleman that come up to

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Speaker 2: the ambulance and jumped on the front of the vehicle

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Speaker 2: and then the crew were trying to ask him to

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Speaker 2: move off, and then he climbed up onto the roof

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Speaker 2: of the ambulance and that made it obviously difficult for

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Speaker 2: our paramedics. They were a bit concerned about what was

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Speaker 2: going on and obviously they weren't able to leave with

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Speaker 2: a person on the roof. So police were called and

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Speaker 2: they responded very quickly to support our crews, and you know,

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Speaker 2: they were able to take the police and our crews

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Speaker 2: worked with the police to get the person down and

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Speaker 2: then to do, you know, look at a bit of

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Speaker 2: an assessment on him to find out what was actually

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Speaker 2: going on. But I think, you know, as you highlighted,

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Speaker 2: this is just another another one in a in a

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Speaker 2: stream of events where you know, it's putting that sort

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Speaker 2: of bit of uncertainty into our paramedics about, you know,

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Speaker 2: responding some of some of the cases and the things

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Speaker 2: that we're dealing with in the community. So, you know,

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Speaker 2: and that flows on to the fact that in our

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Speaker 2: Springs over the weekend, we had a crew responding to

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Speaker 2: a case and as they arrived in the area of

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Speaker 2: the case, there was two vehicles that started circling around

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Speaker 2: the ambulance and now they had the belief that they

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Speaker 2: thought that the vehicles were going to try and ran

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Speaker 2: the ambulance. They were unable to get to the patient

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Speaker 2: that they'd been called to because of that, because they

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Speaker 2: needed to withdraw. So I think it's unfortunate seeing these

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Speaker 2: sort of behaviors, and as I said, it is playing

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Speaker 2: on the welfare and the well being about it.

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Speaker 1: I bet it is. I bet it would make it

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Speaker 1: really very difficult in different ways to be able to

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Speaker 1: do your job properly. I mean, Andrew, as the director

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Speaker 1: of Ambulance Services, and I know you've been in this

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Speaker 1: role for quite some time. I mean, are you quite

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Speaker 1: alarmed by some of the behavior that we are seeing

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Speaker 1: towards our first responders?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look absolutely, you know at Saint John obviously, you

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Speaker 2: know we sort of talk about, you know, with all

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Speaker 2: of our first responders and all our clinicians within the organization.

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Speaker 2: It's very much being a small organization, is very much

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Speaker 2: like a bit of a family, and we all try

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Speaker 2: to get around and support and look after each other.

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Speaker 2: And you know, as the director, you know, I feel

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Speaker 2: that it weighs on me about the well being and

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Speaker 2: the safety of our staff. And we know that We've

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Speaker 2: seen too many of our staff be the victim of

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Speaker 2: both verbal and physical assaults over the years. And you know,

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Speaker 2: these can continue despite the messaging, despite the work, despite

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Speaker 2: the changes of laws, you know, and we do everything

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Speaker 2: we can to try and set up those systems and

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Speaker 2: training for our staff, but we know that we're sending

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Speaker 2: them out each day. And while there's only a small,

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Speaker 2: I suppose minority of people that are looking to, you know,

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Speaker 2: be disrespectful to our staff, you know, obviously is a

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Speaker 2: big issue.

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Speaker 1: It is. It's a massive issue, and it's something that

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Speaker 1: impacts older man, you know, in terms of how you

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Speaker 1: feel when you arrive to an incident, when you've got

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Speaker 1: somebody climbing on the roof of of you know, your vehicle,

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Speaker 1: or you've got vehicles circling around, you know, your ambulance,

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Speaker 1: when you're in Alice Springs like this kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: It weighs heavy on people's minds. And as much as

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Speaker 1: you try to not let it bother you, and as

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Speaker 1: much as you try and tell yourself, you know, the

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Speaker 1: majority of the time you turn up to something and

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Speaker 1: there isn't a safety concern for you when you're going

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Speaker 1: to work, it still is something that would be in

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Speaker 1: the back of your mind that you're worried about.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and we want to make sure that you know,

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Speaker 2: when our paramedics are turning up to deliver care, you know,

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Speaker 2: to the people in need. We don't want our paramedics

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Speaker 2: spending half of their time or their thought processes, you know,

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Speaker 2: being concerned about what's going on them. We want them

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Speaker 2: to be able to focus on delivering that high quality

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Speaker 2: care that we know that they do to the people

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Speaker 2: in need. And as I said, we've said before, you know,

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Speaker 2: when you've got one eye looking around the situation and

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Speaker 2: you haven't got both eyes on the patient, it makes

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Speaker 2: it very difficult. And we want to make sure that

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Speaker 2: you know, our staff feels safe, that they're able to

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Speaker 2: turn up and do the job that they do and

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Speaker 2: that they love without you know, that sort of you know,

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Speaker 2: fear of something going on that's going to mean that

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Speaker 2: they may not be able to come and continue to

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Speaker 2: do the job that they enjoy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, let's talk about the job and what they

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Speaker 1: have been called out to over the weekend, because it

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Speaker 1: looks like it's been really busy weekend for all of

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Speaker 1: your stuff across the Northern Territory on Saturday about seven

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Speaker 1: point thirty pm on Trail Road near Freshwater Road. I

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Speaker 1: understand that there was a pedestrian strike.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, you know, we keep seeing unfortunately a number

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Speaker 2: of incidents with carr and pedestrian accident and unfortunately another

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Speaker 2: one as you said, on Trailer Road. The pedestrian they're

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Speaker 2: saying some some serious injuries with head and leg injuries

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Speaker 2: and was taken through to the Royal Darwin Hospital by

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Speaker 2: our crews there have done a great job in terms

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Speaker 2: of in that person in the hospital and I'm sure

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Speaker 2: getting the follow up treatment in there. But obviously just

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Speaker 2: reminded the people about, you know, being really careful about

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Speaker 2: keeping that eyes out for pedestrians. We know it's difficult,

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Speaker 2: you know, as the rain and you know that we're

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Speaker 2: moving into the wet season, but it's just another impact

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Speaker 2: of being making sure what we do when we're driving

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Speaker 2: that we're really focused.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, you really have to be because if someone's

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Speaker 1: going to step on the road, it's you know, it

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Speaker 1: could change the life, It can change their life. It

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Speaker 1: is not a good situation for anybody. We also know

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Speaker 1: on Saturday that there was an incident involving a car

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Speaker 1: and a motor scooter in Malden.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie, actually so that just that was actually in

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Speaker 2: the CBD that game. Okay, apology, apologies, we got some

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Speaker 2: mis misinformation for you earlier on. But yeah, it was

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Speaker 2: in Molden and that scooter person that ended up with

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Speaker 2: some you know, some abrasions as they've come off and

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Speaker 2: particularly hit the road, you know, But no, we're taken

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Speaker 2: through the hospital for further treatment, and we just you know,

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Speaker 2: probably again you know, whether it be a bike or

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Speaker 2: a scooter or whatever it is. You know, we really

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Speaker 2: encourage we see these people riding around on scooters and

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Speaker 2: having the helmet hanging on the handlebars when they should

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Speaker 2: actually be on people's heads because if you do come

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Speaker 2: off those sort of things and you hit your head

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Speaker 2: hits the ground, we know that it can cause some

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Speaker 2: really serious injuries. So probably just you know, for as

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Speaker 2: we move into the festive season and we know people

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Speaker 2: are going to be out and about in the CBD

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Speaker 2: and jumping on those scooters and getting around, we just

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Speaker 2: encourage everyone to make sure that they are putting those

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Speaker 2: helmets on so if something does go wrong or they

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Speaker 2: come off them, they're are got the best protection possible well.

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Speaker 1: And sadly we've also seen another fatality over the weekend

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Speaker 1: as well, this time in Port Keats. Unfortunately one person

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Speaker 1: passed away on the scene as I understand it, after

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Speaker 1: a single vehicle rollover.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, now we receive phone calls with that, and in

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Speaker 2: conjunction with care Flight and the local health clinics there,

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Speaker 2: a response was made and unfortunately another fatality on the roads.

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Speaker 2: And you know, from that also there was a we

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Speaker 2: believe a ten year old boy was playing to dal

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Speaker 2: and buy care Flight and the retrieval team that went

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Speaker 2: there with them, and our thoughts go out to all

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Speaker 2: those people who have been affected by that accident, whether

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Speaker 2: it be through the fatality or the serious injuries to

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Speaker 2: the other people. And you know, as we said before,

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Speaker 2: it's you know, we hope that people are paying attention driving,

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Speaker 2: you know, particularly as we said, we're heading into the

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Speaker 2: wet so turn your lights on, where your seatbelts. All

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Speaker 2: of those positive messages that we look after our community

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Speaker 2: to make sure that you know, we have as many

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Speaker 2: people sitting around the table with us for Christmas Day.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well it is you know, our road toll, our

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Speaker 1: number of debts on our roads, this year has been

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Speaker 1: appalling and and I really do hope that people listen

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Speaker 1: to the message that yourself, that other authorities are really

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Speaker 1: trying to push forward, and that is to you know,

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Speaker 1: to not only think about yourselves on the road, but

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Speaker 1: you know, I think about others as well, And as

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Speaker 1: you've touched on, you know, you want to make sure

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Speaker 1: that you've got everybody at Christmas table come Christmas and

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Speaker 1: that we don't have any further loss of life on

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Speaker 1: our roads.

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Speaker 2: We move into the festive season. You know, we have

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Speaker 2: all of our eminance cruise working right throughout the whole lot,

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Speaker 2: and you know, I sort of say each year, you know,

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Speaker 2: our crews want to have a really quiet Christmas and

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Speaker 2: we hope everyone else has a fabulous Christmas and that

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Speaker 2: they enjoy the time and enjoy the festivities. And we

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Speaker 2: hope that you know that our crews are really quiet,

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Speaker 2: sit around on station and don't have to go and

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Speaker 2: do anything, because you know, that would be the best

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Speaker 2: Christmas present for us, It truly would.

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Speaker 1: Well, Andrew, it's always great to catch up with you.

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time this morning as always, and

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Speaker 1: we'll talk to you again very soon.

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Speaker 2: No Brolin thanks Cuttie, thank you,