How Do We Stop It ?

We thought we had the answer to the carnage on our nation's roads.  Each year the death toll broke new lower records and we believed that the modern motor car was a much safer travel option.  Then last year the number of deaths increased sharply and that number went further upward this year - and we still have a number of days remaining.

The Road Safety tacticians are asking themselves - why  ?   The modern car is a marvel of ingenuity.  The driver and passengers travel cocooned behind designed crumple zones intended to reduce the kinetic energy of a crash in an orderly manner, and the final impact shields them behind air bags that reduce damage on the human body.  All this built in safety even extends to pedestrians that the vehicle may hit - and who now are more likely to survive that impact.

If the problem is not the vehicle, then we certainly need to have a hard look at the drivers and here the picture is much clearer.  It seems that every person behind the wheel has memories of other people doing stupid and dangerous things on the road.  We have memories of people ignoring red traffic lights.   We remember being passed by cars travelling well above the legal speed.   We have observed hoons doing burnouts and engaging in street racing.  A small section of the driving population totally ignores the road rules.

The outcome of this increase in road deaths is predictable.  The police will be ordered to increase traffic surveillance and there will probably be an increase in fines levied and the number of demerit points for some offences.   Magistrates will be urged to bring down harsher penalties and high end penalties will see increased prison time.

What this tends to ignore is the statistics of Australia.   We are now home to more than twenty-four million people and todays cars have never been cheaper.   At the lower end of the new car spectrum it is possible to get a vehicle with a five year factory warranty for less than fourteen thousand dollars - on a drive away basis.  The asking price of second hand cars has dropped accordingly.

Basically, this ever increasing vehicle stream is competing for space on a road system little changed from half a century ago.  The odd new section of highway here - and a little widening in other places, but the density of traffic on our roads is steadily increasing.  Add to that the human foibles of drivers and you have the inevitability of road crashes.

The answer to this problem is clearly in sight.   The age of the driverless car is dawning, but during its introduction there will be a mix on our roads between human drivers and those with a computer behind the wheel.  It seems likely that cars with a human driver may face restrictions during the morning and afternoon commuter traffic peaks.

This is going to be a difficult interim periodic. We are already seeing a huge spate in those with a license suspension still behind the wheel and in an ever increasing number of cases, driving cars that lack both registration and insurance.  Where such vehicles are involved in a crash the financial impact on the victims can be disastrous.

In many circumstances, a car is an absolute necessity to earn a living and suspended drivers continue to drive whatever the circumstances.    We need to be careful that in our quest to achieve road safety we do not impose an unacceptable risk on innocent road users by a too harsh imposition of suspensions that will be ignored.

That could well be the reaction of our politicians being seen to do something by ordering a license crackdown to reduce the death toll.  We need to avoid "unintended consequences "  !