No one would envy the careers of Tasmania Police’s Senior Constable Michal Rybka and First-Class Constable Nigel Housego.
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They are Northern Tasmania’s crash investigators – those who are called to crashes where “you have to be dead or dying for us to be called”.
Between them, they have investigated 119 fatal crashes. Sadly, that’s 119 fatal crashes too many.
Wouldn’t it be nice if they didn’t travel up a road and have the reminder they had attended a job there – that they hadn’t had to tell a grieving mother and father that their child had been killed.
Last year there were 37 fatalities on Tasmania’s roads and 280 crashes causing serious injury. Of the fatalities, 17 were drivers, six were passengers, 10 were motorcyclists and four were pedestrians.
Twenty six of those killed were male, with those in the 17-49 year age group most represented.
Tasmania Police constantly remind the public about the “fatal five”, especially around the Christmas and New Year period which has been deemed a high-crash period. The fatal five contributors to road deaths are:
- Speed
- Seatbelts
- Alcohol and drugs
- Distraction
- Fatigue
We all know someone who has flouted the rules – those who have run late to an appointment and travelled 10km/h above the speed limit to make it on time or looked at a beeping phone to see who has called while driving. It seems like common-sense to obey these rules, but why are these rules being broken? Inattention and distraction is a contributing factor in about a quarter of serious road crashes.
The Road Safety Advisory Council has rolled out numerous campaigns from ‘speeding shatters lives’, ‘real mates don’t let mates drink drive’ and ‘don’t be a goose, leave your phone alone’.
All of these campaigns aim to change behaviour – behaviour that everyone that gets behind the wheel must be responsible for.
The state government’s Towards Zero – Tasmanian Road Safety Strategy 2017-2026 will focus on reducing the number of annual serious injuries and deaths on Tasmanian roads to fewer than 200 by 2026.
We all have our part to play.