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Speaker 1: Now we've also been discussing today and certainly caught up

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Speaker 1: with the Minister Bill Yan a little earlier today because

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Speaker 1: we know the Member for Nightcliff Cat mcnamaras, called on

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Speaker 1: the government to fix Baggott Road to prevent pedestrian strikes

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Speaker 1: and fatalities. So she started a petition well pushing for

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Speaker 1: an urgent safety review to be conducted looking at the

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Speaker 1: conditions for pedestrians and cyclists and is calling for better

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Speaker 1: infrastructure around bus stops, more lighting and a review of

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Speaker 1: speed limits along Baggott Road. Now, Bill Yan had said

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Speaker 1: that this is something that the Department is looking at.

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Speaker 1: But joining us on the line right now is the

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Speaker 1: Pedestrian Council of Australia's CEO, Harold Screwby. Good morning to you, Harold.

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Speaker 2: Are you yeah, really good? Great to have you on

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Speaker 2: the show. Harold.

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Speaker 1: What are the stats Showers in regards to pedestrian fatalities

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Speaker 1: and strikes in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 3: Look, the good news the Northern Territory is that your

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Speaker 3: road top has come down significantly this year over last year,

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Speaker 3: over the last twelve months. In fact, you're down for

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Speaker 3: the Northern Territory overall you're down fifty six percent. When

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Speaker 3: it comes to well, that's actually for pedestrians. You had

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Speaker 3: sixteen last year or the previous twelve months, it's down

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Speaker 3: to seven, which is back down to twenty twenty one figures.

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Speaker 3: That's very very good. You're overall the overall deaths in

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Speaker 3: the Northern Territory are down thirty five percent as well,

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Speaker 3: sixty two last twelve months. Forty Now, now the bad

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Speaker 3: data is that you are still fifteen point two deaths

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Speaker 3: per one hundred thousand. That's a drop of thirty seven

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Speaker 3: percent from last year. But it's three times higher than

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Speaker 3: the worst in Australia, or three times high in the

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Speaker 3: national average.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And I guess to anybody listening as well, Harold, you know,

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Speaker 1: even though those stats have gone down, all those numbers

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Speaker 1: have gone down, it's cold comfort if you've lost a

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Speaker 1: family member to a road fatality, isn't it.

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Speaker 3: Oh, it's horrific. And what's more, this whole concept of

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Speaker 3: hit and run. I think most of us saw that

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Speaker 3: seven point thirty report on the gentleman well man Jake Danby,

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Speaker 3: who was accused and I think found guilty of hitting

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Speaker 3: and killing a man, and the comments he made about

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Speaker 3: that poor man, and then the sort of the arrogance

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Speaker 3: he said he'd never go to jail because he was

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Speaker 3: a Danby, and then it transpired that he was related

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Speaker 3: to the Attorney General. I mean, this sounds like something

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Speaker 3: out of Tennessee. Yeah, it's not the sort of thing

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Speaker 3: you want to hear in Australia.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: I mean it's something that people are being quite appalled

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Speaker 1: by when we look at those numbers as well, Harold

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Speaker 1: our first nations people over represented in those statistics.

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Speaker 3: Oh very much right across Australia though, right across Australia.

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Speaker 3: And it's a really troubling issue. It's sometimes very hard

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Speaker 3: to know what to do. We know a lot of

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Speaker 3: it's to do with alcohol and possibly drugs. You know,

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Speaker 3: that's that's a very big problem the I guess the

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Speaker 3: territory has a unique problem or a more than normal

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Speaker 3: problem there. But to think that you're three times the

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Speaker 3: national average, you're up there with places like Kenya and

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Speaker 3: you know some of these African countries with that deaktop

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Speaker 3: one hundred thousand. It's just appalling. And it's down for

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Speaker 3: nearly thirty six percent on last year. You can imagine

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Speaker 3: what it was. It was amongst the worst in the world. Now,

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Speaker 3: the good news for us, well for you, is that

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Speaker 3: we were instrument mental many years ago and getting more

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Speaker 3: than Territory to reduce its maximum speed to one hundred

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Speaker 3: and thirty. Still that's the only place in Australia where

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Speaker 3: you can do it. Every other state and Territory is

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Speaker 3: one hundred and ten. But it used to be unlimited.

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Speaker 1: Do you remember, Yeah, I do, I certainly do remember.

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Speaker 1: I know people were you know, when it changed. There

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Speaker 1: were some that didn't want it to change.

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Speaker 2: But I don't know. Honestly, I don't know whether.

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Speaker 1: It's made a big impact in terms of the number

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Speaker 1: of road debts we have, but I would hope that

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Speaker 1: it has, and I would think.

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Speaker 2: That it has well.

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Speaker 3: It has to make a difference in the mentality. You know,

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Speaker 3: that's the only place in the world where there was

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Speaker 3: unlimited speed on undivided roads with soft shoulders. It just

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Speaker 3: you just don't do it anywhere from the world. If

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Speaker 3: you're going to do these unlimited speeds, say on German

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Speaker 3: auder Barns, I mean, I think that's bad enough. But

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Speaker 3: they're very, very perfectly manicured roads with huge mediums and

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Speaker 3: all sorts of barriers. The fact that you could do

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Speaker 3: that out on an open road when there's cattle roaming

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Speaker 3: over the road and animals, it just was beyond belief.

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Speaker 3: And we did a lot of lobbying and we did

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Speaker 3: get that cut back, but that doesn't help. That's not

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Speaker 3: where most of the pedestrians and injuries are taking place.

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Speaker 3: That's on the inner city. One of the things we're

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Speaker 3: working on, and we're getting somewhere in some of the

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Speaker 3: states and territories is thirty k zones in areas of

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Speaker 3: high pedestrian activity. Now that might sound strange in the territory,

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Speaker 3: but if you go to Europe, London, Paris, Madrid, most

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Speaker 3: of the major capitals now are moving to thirty. All

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Speaker 3: the areas of high pedestrian activity are thirty and New

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Speaker 3: Zealand is moving to this because they found that in

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Speaker 3: cities particularly, it not only reduces trauma, but it dramatically

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Speaker 3: improves commerce and business because people prefer to go and

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Speaker 3: shop in areas where it's safe.

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Speaker 1: Hold in turn, you know, I'm sure you're familiar with it.

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Speaker 1: Baggett Road is one of our well, it is one

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Speaker 1: of our main sort of roads that a lot of

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Speaker 1: Territorians travel on every single day. It is unfortunately an

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Speaker 1: area where we have had a number of pedestrian strikes.

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Speaker 1: We've got a situation now where the Greens Member for

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Speaker 1: Nightcliff is calling for the Northern Territory government to implement

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Speaker 1: some changes to try and prevent those strikes. I caught

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Speaker 1: up with the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure earlier this

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Speaker 1: morning and he said that it is something that the

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Speaker 1: department's already looking into. They are looking at whether there

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Speaker 1: may actually be able to be some sort of motion

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Speaker 1: lighting if pedestrians are trying to get across the road

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Speaker 1: in the evenings and that kind of thing that would

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Speaker 1: light up the road I'm assuming so that drivers can

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Speaker 1: see anybody trying to cross. I mean, are things like

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Speaker 1: that good measures to put in place?

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Speaker 2: Do you think?

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Speaker 3: I think that sort of belongs in another century. Why

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Speaker 3: should pedestrians have to beg to cross a road? Why

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Speaker 3: are we the ones We're the largest road user group

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Speaker 3: and we're the most vulnerable and politicians always shove us

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Speaker 3: at the bottom of a food chain, Really and truly

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Speaker 3: number one, why do they always look into things and

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Speaker 3: never do anything. Don't look into it, do something, But

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Speaker 3: Why is the speed limits so high along there is

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Speaker 3: the fact that motorists can get to their destination in

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Speaker 3: thirty seconds earlier so important when the lives and limbs

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Speaker 3: of people who choose to walk so unimportant. Why don't

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Speaker 3: they have lots of bridges across there if they're not

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Speaker 3: going to provide safe places to cross. I mean, the

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Speaker 3: first thing to do is reduce the speed. Clearly, eighty

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Speaker 3: seems to be very dangerous there, and set even seventy.

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Speaker 3: If you've got evidence of high levels of trauma, then

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Speaker 3: you reduce this. It's obvious, you know in you I've

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Speaker 3: just come back from Europe. In most cases now in

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Speaker 3: Scandinavia they don't do much over eighty kilometers an hour

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Speaker 3: anymore on undivided roads because they find that if two

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Speaker 3: vehicles collided anything over that, there's no one survives. So

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Speaker 3: why aren't we looking at ideas like that? Why aren't

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Speaker 3: we putting the vulnerable road us as the cyclist and

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Speaker 3: the pedestrians first instead of always the last. And unfortunately

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Speaker 3: Northern Territory has no excuses to have a road toll

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Speaker 3: that's three times higher than the average none harold.

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Speaker 1: Some people listening this morning will be saying, at what point, though,

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Speaker 1: does personal responsibility come into play as well?

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Speaker 2: And you know, crossing the road sort.

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Speaker 1: Of safely, going to that footbridge safely, or going to

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Speaker 1: you know where there are sort of signs up telling

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Speaker 1: you it's a safer spot to cross.

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Speaker 3: What have you got to walk a mile for the

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Speaker 3: right to cross the This is nonsense. Personal responsibility what

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Speaker 3: a lot of nonsense, you know, really and truly pedestrians

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Speaker 3: have the right to cross a road without walking, you know,

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Speaker 3: a couple of kilometers to then come back again. It's

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Speaker 3: crazy we always say personal responsibility. What about the personal

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Speaker 3: responsibility of motorists to slow down? The motorists have caused

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Speaker 3: most of these crashes in your case, in the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 3: there have been so many hidden runs. And if the

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Speaker 3: courts are treating the death of a human being with

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Speaker 3: such utter contempt, you've really got to have a good

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Speaker 3: look at yourself. How can you possibly give someone community

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Speaker 3: service for hitting and leaving a human being to lie

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Speaker 3: in the gutter? And how what sort of images that

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Speaker 3: portraying to the rest of Australia, let alone in the world.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, look, you know, I agree you I think that

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Speaker 1: you know if someone is doing the wrong thing, then

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Speaker 1: they certainly need to feel.

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Speaker 2: The full force of the law.

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Speaker 1: Particularly, I mean that coverage, what we've seen and heard

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Speaker 1: out of that is disgraceful. There's no other way to

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Speaker 1: put it.

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Speaker 2: Harold, we are going to have to wrap up. I reckon.

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Speaker 1: You've really given people a bit of food for thought

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Speaker 1: this morning, so I appreciate you joining us on the

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Speaker 1: show any time.

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Speaker 3: Katie. Please, we've got to get this road toll down.

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Speaker 3: We've got to get all politicians. You never hear them

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Speaker 3: talking about it, do you. And they'll talk about domestic violence,

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Speaker 3: tilk ours come home, they'll talk about knives and guns,

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Speaker 3: but they very very rarely mentioned the road toll because

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Speaker 3: they don't think there's any votes. Let's please bring road

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Speaker 3: trauma up to the top of the food chain and

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Speaker 3: start talking about the rights of the most vulnerable.

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Speaker 1: Well, Harold Screwby, thank you so much for your time

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Speaker 1: this morning. Really appreciate us my pleasure.

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Speaker 3: Katie, thank you,