RELATED: Fatal crash at Elmore
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Bendigo police and driver safety advocates have welcomed a state government plan to curb Victoria’s rising road toll, one that will see police officers take on more shifts to monitor driver behaviour.
A meeting of the government’s ministerial council into road safety last week approved 1000 new police shifts between now and Christmas to target dangerous driving behaviours, including mobile phone use, speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol.
The announcement comes as yet another motorist was killed in a car crash near Bendigo in the early hours of Monday morning.
New South Wales man Gary Young died when his car veered off the Midland Highway and struck a tree at Burnewang, eight kilometres from Elmore.
The fatality brings this year’s road toll to 206, 31 more than at the same time last year.
It is the highest number of road deaths to September since 2008.
Sergeant Mick McCrann from Bendigo’s highway patrol unit said putting more police on the streets would make road users pay more attention when driving.
“There's no doubt it’s in most of our morals and good natures that when we see a police vehicle we check ourselves,” he said.
“But it’s incumbent upon all of us, not just police, to be conscious about road safety, especially the safety of our vulnerable road users: cyclists, pedesterians and the elderly,” he said.
Obeying the speed limit, driving to the conditions and avoiding alcohol before getting behind the wheel all lowered the likelihood of injury and death on the road, the police officer said.
“The reality is, road safety comes down to some very basic things.”
Driver safety educator John Maher also backed the government’s move to put more police on the roads in the lead up to the holiday season.
Mr Maher’s daughter, Carmen, died in a car crash in 1995, aged 18.
He now visits schools across Victoria and Queensland to talk to students about risks they will face on the road.
He said Victorians should be ashamed on the 2016 toll and believed driver apathy was behind the spike in deaths.
“It's the old Australian way of thinking: ‘it'll never happen to me’ and ‘she'll be right mate’,” Mr Maher said.
“Every single road user, from pedestrians right through to the drivers, they must taker greater and personal responsibility for how they use the roads.”
More police would mean better detection of mobile phone and drug use among motorists, two factors Mr Maher believed needed to be addressed in order to cease the road toll’s climb.
One in 12 drivers tested in the past year were found to be under the influence of drugs.
Driver drug use was also identified by police minister Lisa Neville as a reason behind the increase in police shifts.
Asked whether the government’s plan put the responsibility of the road toll onto law enforcement staff and not offending motorists, Ms Neville said it was intended to send a “strong message” to drivers.
“We know we need to do more in terms of the police presence and interventions – but we also need the community to do more as well,” she said.
“Let's be clear – the extra shifts are an incentive for members wanting to work more over the holiday period.”
Funds from a $12 million Transport Accident Commission program will be used to cover the cost of the new patrols. The government already announced $1.1 billion in May to bring the road toll below 200, a number surpassed last month.
Mr Maher hoped the additional shifts were enough to stop other families from having to endure the hardship his family had experienced and said he was filled with sadness for the families of the 208 killed this year.
“I know what those family are now going to live with for the rest of their life.
“It is a life where there’s no hope of ever seeing your loved on again.”