There's no denying 2020 has already been a horror year on our roads. During COVID, in a year when nearly all Australian states experienced a noticeable drop in road crashes - Tasmania did not.
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And while every death is met with shock and sadness, complacency around road safety continue. Not for everyone, but for many. Just as not every crash is caused my human error. Some are just tragic, unavoidable accidents. But as statistics show, the vast majority are largely preventable. Which means one thing - it all comes down to you.
Every fatality has a devastating and long-lasting impact on families and communities. But despite continued messages around road safety, people continue take risks and make reckless decisions.
In more recent years the focus has shifted to putting the onus back on the driver. The idea of a shared responsibility.
On Saturday the state government launched its latest roads safety campaign 'A look that could save lives'. It's a somewhat updated version of the 'real mates' campaign. The idea is to encourage young men to intervene and stop a mate from driving after he's been drinking.
Why men? Because statistics show us that alcohol is a leading factor in about 17 per cent of fatalities or serious injury-crashes. Of that 17 per cent, 21 per cent are men aged between 17 and 25.
Targeted responses like this are welcomed. We need to be looking at the evidence to inform us on where we are going wrong. What mistakes, actions or decisions are leading to deaths on our roads. But at the end of the day road safety campaigns will mean nothing if the messages aren't adhered to.
Ensuring safety on our roads doesn't just sit with governments, councils and police. If you can't take responsibility for your own actions, then you have no right getting behind the wheel.
Last month The Examiner launched its own road safety campaign Stop.Think. Drive. We want our readers to help create the narrative and push for change. Because enough is enough. We all need to think and act differently on the road, before anyone else gets killed.
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