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Speaker 1: Christmas is a time that a lot more people get

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Speaker 1: out on the road, and so it seems like a

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Speaker 1: good chance to check in with the CEO of the

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Speaker 1: Australian Road Safety Foundation, Russell White. Good morning, Russell.

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Speaker 2: Russ, Good morning, Lisa Clearsy.

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Speaker 1: How you doing, guys, good goodte elephant in the room.

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Speaker 1: First of all, our road toll is currently atrocious.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we've got a fairly large amount of work to do.

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Speaker 2: I think if we're going to start to alter the

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Speaker 2: trend that we're seeing in road safety, you know, right

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Speaker 2: around the country quite frankly, where it just seems to

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Speaker 2: be a disproportionate increase in the level of road trauma

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Speaker 2: that we're seeing right across the board. So whole stack

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Speaker 2: of reasons probably for that, which we're still trying to

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Speaker 2: ascertain from a research standpoint. But I think certainly the

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Speaker 2: trends that we've been seeing, especially in recent times, are

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Speaker 2: particularly worrying.

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Speaker 3: Russell. In twenty twenty four, people still on their phones

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Speaker 3: whilst driving a car. We see them everywhere people are,

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Speaker 3: We're all using our phones a lot. Is that still

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Speaker 3: a major issue?

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Speaker 2: Direction? I actually think, you know, distraction is probably the

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Speaker 2: biggest thing we're going to be dealing with in terms

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Speaker 2: of a road safety space for the foreseeable future. And

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Speaker 2: I say that because you know, not everybody will choose

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Speaker 2: to drink drive, not everybody will choose not to wear

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Speaker 2: a seat belt, but every one of us has a

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Speaker 2: device either in our pocket, on our wrist, and because

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Speaker 2: we've sort of become so conditioned now that this always

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Speaker 2: being connected and available, there is a downside to that

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Speaker 2: with being on the road, and that applies to a pedestrian,

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Speaker 2: it equally is it applies to a driver or a rider.

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Speaker 2: So distraction is a massive thing. So it's one of

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Speaker 2: our key messages is about staying focused and just making

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Speaker 2: sure the phone's not in reach.

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Speaker 1: I've always thought that distraction and even pre phones, just

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Speaker 1: astraction in general is the most dangerous thing on the roads,

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Speaker 1: more so than speed or anything else. What do you

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Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on A lot of people would

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Speaker 1: like to see a lot more police presence on the road.

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Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on that? Russell?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we've got to be honest. I think

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Speaker 2: we've got to go back to the future a little bit.

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Speaker 2: But I think you know, there's no doubt that there's

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Speaker 2: a place for COVID cameras and things like that. I

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Speaker 2: think there's a role for that for sure, But I

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Speaker 2: think if we go back to the old days, you've

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Speaker 2: got to remember that, you know, if you saw a

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Speaker 2: police officer, it did change your behavior. But having said

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Speaker 2: that too, I think we've also then got to have

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Speaker 2: a bit of a bit of a readjustment in terms

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Speaker 2: of how we view the law, how we view respect

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Speaker 2: for other people, because there's also been a bit of

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Speaker 2: a thing that's changed since COVID finished, and there is

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Speaker 2: a definite change in sort of attitudes towards responsibility, compliance

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Speaker 2: and even looking after other people around you. So one

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Speaker 2: of the theories that's happening, yeah, in the road safety

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Speaker 2: world at the moment is you know what's happened post pandemic,

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Speaker 2: because not just again in Australia, but around the world,

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Speaker 2: there's been a cultural change in the way that people

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Speaker 2: are performing on the road now. Whether that is that

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Speaker 2: because we weren't match fit for a while, we didn't

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Speaker 2: drive very much for a while, or whether something else

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Speaker 2: has changed, but we've just sort of started arcing up

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Speaker 2: against I guess a sense of community. So there's some

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Speaker 2: interesting work being done in that space at the moment.

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Speaker 2: But I would also again suggest, as we said at

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Speaker 2: the start there that you know, police enforcement, more more people,

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Speaker 2: more cars on the road, more visible policing is also

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Speaker 2: part of that solution.

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Speaker 3: I am herry, you have a lot of toots in

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Speaker 3: traffic right now, Russ. Is that people being in patient

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Speaker 3: with each other and the anger just seems to be

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Speaker 3: just below the surface when people are driving.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, because again something again, something's happened. And again

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Speaker 2: when I talk to people right around the country, I

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Speaker 2: generally asked start off with a question, you know, how

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Speaker 2: have you what are you seeing on the road? Are

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Speaker 2: you seeing more aggression? Are you seeing less tolerance? Are

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Speaker 2: you're seeing more people, you know, blatantly breaking road rules?

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Speaker 2: And just about every hand in the room goes up,

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Speaker 2: So again starts to ask the question, you know, if

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Speaker 2: we're going to fix road safety, what are we going

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Speaker 2: to do that's going to shine the light on personal,

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Speaker 2: on the personal role we all play, because I think

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Speaker 2: sometimes you'll say to people in the street, you know

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Speaker 2: who's responsible for roadsapping, They'll say it's the government or

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Speaker 2: the police, And whilst that's true, answer, well, they're part

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Speaker 2: of it. But it's the community, it's us, it's the

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Speaker 2: choices we make. So quite often when a crash occurs,

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Speaker 2: it's because you know, someone's made a mistake, somebody said,

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Speaker 2: or someone's had a deliberate a deliberate act or a

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Speaker 2: practiced act that they just don't realize what the consequence

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Speaker 2: they're going to be. So one of the things we're

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Speaker 2: pushing for is a is a cultural shift for people

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Speaker 2: to understand it. If we want to see these road

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Speaker 2: Caull numbers come down, the keys rest with us. It's

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Speaker 2: not something wea can outsource. And so an individual, your

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Speaker 2: personal choices can make a huge difference.

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Speaker 1: Well, I mean, people so often seem to forget they're

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Speaker 1: behind the wheel of a gigantic, heavy lethal weapon. And

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Speaker 1: just this, I don't think that a lot of people

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Speaker 1: don't take their driver's license serious enough. And I still

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Speaker 1: think that driver's license are hand driver's licenses are handed

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Speaker 1: out too easily.

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Speaker 3: I don't think that.

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Speaker 1: Everyone should be the wheel of a car, But that's

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Speaker 1: just me. Russell, what do you think of that the

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Speaker 1: new red pea Plater's rule about one friend in the car, Well.

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Speaker 2: I think it sort of brings things into line. Is

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Speaker 2: there's been peer group restrictions in various states around Australia,

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Speaker 2: you know, for a while, and I'm a little bit

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Speaker 2: surprised it has taken that long to get it into play,

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Speaker 2: but I do think it helps. I mean, there's no

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Speaker 2: doubt you've got to sort of look at, you know,

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Speaker 2: the way that especially young guys can carry on. Sometimes

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Speaker 2: the more people who got in the car, obviously there's

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Speaker 2: going to be more more people affected if something happens,

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Speaker 2: but it also takes away that little bit of a

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Speaker 2: peer pressure type of thing to maybe start pushing the

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Speaker 2: barriers a little bit. So I'm certainly supportive of passenger

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Speaker 2: restrictions for PEA players for sure.

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Speaker 3: So we call this time of year the silly season,

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Speaker 3: you know, we know what people being silly, but a

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Speaker 3: lot of the workplace functions that are on now will

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Speaker 3: be replaced with family functions soon. Is one important thing

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Speaker 3: that people don't be afraid to be a bit of

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Speaker 3: a party paper and just reminding people, so not just

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Speaker 3: looking up themselves, but reminding family and friends.

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Speaker 2: One hundred percent. I think one of the challenges often,

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Speaker 2: you know, historically has been, you know, people have been

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Speaker 2: afraid to speak up and I think we've got to

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Speaker 2: start we've got to start being a bit more vocal

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Speaker 2: about that because I think Lisa touching the point you

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Speaker 2: raised before. You know the risk that's there even though

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Speaker 2: you're on the road every day, and I think unfortunately

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Speaker 2: tend to get a bit of apathy happening. But I

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Speaker 2: think you've got to start looking at the focus so

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Speaker 2: that it's the number one thing that's going to kill

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Speaker 2: an Australian child between one and fourteen. It's the number

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Speaker 2: one thing that's causing death and injury in a workplace.

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Speaker 2: It's second only to use suicide in the fifteen to

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Speaker 2: twenty five year old age brackets. So there's a huge

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Speaker 2: amount of responsibility that comes with having that piece of

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Speaker 2: plastic with your photograph on it.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah, all right, well, Russell, Let's hope that everyone

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Speaker 1: keeps keep things in perspective as they're driving on the

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Speaker 1: roads as Christmas. Remember that there's and there's always a

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Speaker 1: lot more people on the road as well, especially on

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Speaker 1: the country roads. Let's hope that everyone keeps a cool head.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that's the thing. Let's keep be present,

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Speaker 2: stay calm and collected, be present one hundred percent. Look

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Speaker 2: as far aheads you can drive to conditions and just

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Speaker 2: make sure you get to get your destination safe.

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Speaker 1: And the old thing about you know better late than

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Speaker 1: not at all is very true. Thank you Russell. I

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Speaker 1: have a wonderful Christmas. In New Year, do the catch

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Speaker 1: up and a safe one on the road.

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Speaker 2: You two guys all the best.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Russell, my