The 28 deaths and perhaps 300 injuries in the Easter disaster in Australia did not get the attention they deserve. If the disaster had been a ferry sinking on Sydney harbour, a cyclone, the collapse of a football stadium, an adventure trip gone wrong, a landslide taking out a mountain lodge or some other single event, the nation would have stopped in its tracks. There would have been memorial services, dramatic television pictures, inquiries and much commentary. As it was, the 28 people died in the disaster that is Australia’s road toll.
Police point the finger at speed, alcohol and fatigue. They frequently target speed and alcohol with blitzes. At holiday periods, Governments impose double demerit points. Still the people die. True, road deaths have fallen from two decades ago, both in relation to the number of cars on the road and kilometres travelled, but more impressively in absolute numbers. In the past two decades the trend has been for fewer people to die despite more cars and people on the road. But in the past couple of years the toll that trend has ceased. The toll was an horrific 3321 in 1981. With some blips it fell steadily to 1768 in 1997. The trend now is for it to be stuck around this level.
A fair amount of research is needed for precise conclusions, but it is fairly apparent that seat belts, random breath testing, radar and speed cameras have contributed a lot, so have improved roads and better cars. But can we now conclude that these factors have run their course in reducing the toll, though they are still necessary to keep it at its present level.
It may be, also, that strictness of enforcement in matters speeding (10-15km/h over on the open highway) and drink driving (0.05 to 0.08 in random testing) is alienating some people who would otherwise be law-abiding and pushing the road-safety cause. It may be that the example of the Easter police blitz on drink driving in the ACT during which 3723 tests resulted in just six positive tests indicates that the line has been reached for further reductions in the toll by current methods alone. More speed cameras and more random breath-testing seem unlikely to have any further effect on reducing the toll.
That is not to say we should abandon these methods, but it should be a matter of debate whether they are increased or whether efforts should be made in other directions.
We may now have to accept that 1760 people will die every year on Australia’s roads as the acceptable cost of the convenience of having motor transport. Or we must look in new directions.
Reducing the suburban speed limits to 50km/h or 40km/h has a lot of merit, but its major advantage is in quality of suburban life, rather than the death toll.
The one thing which has not been looked at seriously enough is driver education. Schools have introduced it. Some jurisdictions have an optional log-book system for obtaining a licence, but it is still possible in Australia for a person to get a licence after passing a single test having been trained by an untrained instructor, often a parent. They can then drive day or night, fine or storm and with or without passengers. Given the Easter disaster, the number of people killed and injured and the huge economic cost we must ask whether this is good enough.
It is time for some discussion about compulsory education before licences are issued; graduated licences and on-going testing.
Aircraft pilots do not get unrestricted licences; nor should drivers of cars. We have a P-plate system with special drinking limits, but it could go further. A learner might be able to drive only with a 10-year licence holder who has done an instruction test. Then solo could be added after a test. Then night driving. Then driving with passengers. Then driving on dirt roads. There could be tests between grades, or automatic upgrading after a time limit. Perhaps everyone should be retested regularly, with more frequent retesting of the less experienced.
Or do we just accept 1760 deaths a year?