Tasmanian roads are the most deadly in Australia. Think about that for a moment: “The most deadly roads in Australia”. The national road fatality rate for 2008 was 6.85 deaths per 100,000 people. In Tasmania last year the rate was 12.8 deaths per 100,000 people. That’s almost double.
Even before the tragically high number of deaths last year we still had the highest per capita fatality rate of any state. Only the Northern Territory had a worse record.
In 2009 the Northern Territory took action. It reduced speed limits, increased demerit points, doubled fines and got dedicated traffic police on the roads. The result last year was the Territory’s lowest toll for 30 years – a reduction from 74 in 2008 to 30 in 2009.
Through a similar range of measures the Victorian Government last year oversaw its lowest road toll since records began in 1952.
Here in Tasmania the Bartlett government did nothing to seriously tackle the problem and we saw our road toll rise from 40 in 2008 to 64 deaths in 2009.
Even that shocking rise was not enough to make Labor wake up and take action.
When asked about the disastrous road toll Police Minister Jim Cox said he’s “never seen a road kill anyone”. Perhaps that attitude is also the reason why Infrastructure Minister Graeme “goat track” Sturges keeps inventing reasons why the Midland Highway shouldn’t be upgraded to four lanes ?
Labor not only has the wrong attitude to road safety, its ministers seem utterly incapable of initiating measures to save lives.
Throughout the past year I’ve highlighted new ideas and policies that can help reduce Tasmania’s road toll. I’ve spoken about driver training and education, tackling hoons, increasing penalties, improving our roads, and, for young people, linking behaviour at school to the ability to obtain a learner’s permit.
Videos and articles on road safety on my website here.
Under a Hodgman Liberal Government road safety will be a priority. A whole suite of initiatives are ready to be implemented to make our roads safer and start saving lives. These include:
Speed Camera Revenue
The Tasmanian Liberals understand that there is a general principle not to hypothecate revenue received from fines, but do not accept that principle in regard to fines paid for proven speed camera offences. Given that speed is such a large contributor to car crashes which cause death and injury, we believe the revenue from speed cameras should be quarantined to be used for road safety measures, including public education and physical infrastructure.
Driver Education
The Tasmanian Liberals believe that any person who has had his or her driver licence suspended or who has been disqualified from driving because of an accumulation of
offences or a particular offence, should be required to undertake a short course which relates to driver behaviour.
In Government, advice would be sought from other jurisdictions which have had success with this initiative in improving driver behaviour.
Driver Training
The Tasmanian Liberals believe that, as well as sanctions to deal with driving offences, a responsible State Government would support incentives to encourage novice drivers to undertake professional training in defensive driving.
One incentive would be a rebate on the fee for a full driver licence upon providing proof of successful completion of a course which has been accredited by the State Government.
Safe Drivers
Consistent with our dual ‘incentive and sanction’ approach, the Tasmanian Liberals believe that there should be a rebate on driver licence renewal fees for drivers who can prove they have no driving convictions for the previous five years in any Australian jurisdiction, and who are not facing any unheard charges.
Black Spots
Permanent speed cameras should be installed at black spot sites which have been proven by police statistics to be common sites of crashes. The Tasmanian Liberals recognise that there is a cost for such equipment, so therefore the cameras would be rolled out over a period of time. In the interim, all recognized black spot sites in Tasmania should be sign-posted to alert road users.
Double demerits
The Tasmanian Liberals believe that it is time for Tasmania to join other Australian States in adopting a Double Demerit Point system for public holidays, including:
* On long weekends – when either a Monday or a Friday is a public holiday;
* Christmas – from 23 December until 2 January; and
* Easter – from midday on the day before Good Friday until midnight on Easter Tuesday.
Offences which would be covered include:
* Speeding;
* Not wearing a seat belt;
* Not wearing a motorcycle helmet; and
* Riding in the back of utilities, trucks, etc.
The Tasmanian Liberals believe that all measures to decrease speeding and dangerous driving during holiday periods and long weekends must be considered, and they should be adopted if they have proven successful elsewhere.
Experience in NSW and WA, which have both had Double Demerit systems for a number of years, has shown that fatal crashes and crashes overall decrease during Double Demerit point periods.
The Double Demerit point period would be advertised widely in the three Tasmanian daily newspapers on the day preceding the period, and on television and radio. As this Double Demerit initiative is centred on road safety, fine penalties would remain the same during the periods, and after three years, the Double Demerit point system would be reviewed by the Road Safety Council or other properly qualified people to assess its effectiveness.
Highway Patrol vehicles
Our Commitment – We will:
* Convert 12 vehicles to high visibility markings for Highway Patrol use in the first year of a Hodgman Liberal Government – i.e. 3 per Traffic Division. Remaining Traffic Division cars will be upgraded in the following year.
* Upgrade all other operational police vehicles to ‘suburban high visibility’ markings progressively over a five year period, as vehicles are replaced.
The Need
In the ongoing battle between Police versus Bad Drivers, the drivers are clearly winning.
They have little fear of detection and behave accordingly.
We need a ‘muscled up’ approach to highway policing that clearly serves notice that Tasmania Police – supported by the Government – are determined to win this battle.
Just over 70% of the operational Tasmania Police fleet are fitted with police lights and/or markings.
However, current vehicle markings vehicle colour does not sufficiently distinguish them from other special use Vehicles used by such agencies as Customs, Transport Inspectors, the State Emergency Service and private security firms.
In addition, police vehicles are not easily recognisable from a reasonable distance or in poor light.
This low level of visibility increases the potential for accidents, and has consequences both for officers and the travelling public.
Four-lane Midland Highway
The Midland Highway and Bass Highway form part of the National Highway Network and are the major freight and passenger route in Tasmania. Between 2001 and 2005 almost 40% of all Tasmanian crashes occurred on the National Highway (Bass and Midland Highways). Over the past 5 years, the Tasmanian Corridor Strategy has found that Tasmanian container freight has grown by 10.5% a year, but even with a more conservative 6% a year growth, Tasmania would experience a doubling of container freight in 10 years (by 2017).
Whilst population growth is not great, Tasmanians are moving from the centre of towns to urban fringes. The Strategy finds that there will be increased passenger travel. Passenger travel for education and services will also increase. Patient transport and travel by University of Tasmania staff and students are prime examples. General Freight transport by road is expected to double over the next 20-25 years. Tasmania will continue to have the highest level of car ownership per capita of any State.
Between 2005 and 2030, freight movements are forecast to increase by 70% and passenger movements by 40%. Freight carried by rail is forecast to increase by over 120% over the same period. Historically, the Port of Hobart was the main trading port for Southern Tasmania.
The Tasmanian Corridor Strategy has found that over the last 20 years, the Hobart port’s throughput has significantly declined, while the freight task between Southern Tasmania and the northern ports has continued to increase with more than 30% of containers leaving our northern ports originating from the south.
State and Federal governments have recognised this trend with the progressive upgrade to dual carriageway of the Bass Highway between Devonport and Burnie (now completed).
Since the Tasmanian Liberals committed to a long-term four-lane Midland Highway plan, Labor has made many incorrect and deliberately misleading claims about the project, effectively seeking to sabotage efforts to attract federal funds for this project and sending a message that Tasmanians don’t deserve quality infrastructure.
Hi Michael, just wanted to mention how difficult it is for drivers unfamiliar with an area to find their way. We have an aging population in Tassie and the street signs are so small – especially in Launceston. This causes all drivers anxiety, and they are distracted – not just aged drivers but tourists too. Make the signs bigger, make sure all directional signs are clear and free from overgrown foliage. These probably do not cause the fatal crashes but the fender benders; driving is a job and has to be taken seriously, any measures to help drivers should be taken by all tiers of gov. Also, have you noticed how the vehicle registration plates have become smaller. How can you report “hit and runs”, and dangerous driving when the rego plate isn’t clear for the majority. Take steps to enlarge these too. Note that I have good vision, and am not that old but at speed the numbers can be misread. Finally, I think all technology should be investigated with regard to speed signs interacting with the cars as they pass. E-Tags etc. collect tolls why can’t speed on highways be limited/controlled/vehicle reported by a similar system? Is there any data about accidents involving drivers who have been using cruise control. I think this leads to a level of complacency and apathy. Regards Ann
PS – get the freight on to rail, even smaller electric locos and get the water released down the Gorge to clear the silt from The Tamar River – no too much to ask for the one email…….
Hi Michael,
While I agree with a lot of your road safety improvements I also think there is too much emphasis placed on speeding. While it has been proven that increased speed increases the severity of accidents I do not believe it has been proven that speed alone is the cause of very many accidents. I would agree that inappropriate speed is also a major factor in a lot of accidents but an inappropriate speed can still be well below the posted speed limit in certain situations.
As a former NSW resident I would have to say the reason the double demerits system works is because people are so worried about not being fined that they all sit well under the advised limits and spend the majority of their time “speedo watching”. As a result a lot of the states major roads resemble large parking lots with traffic only crawling along.
I fully support the notion of driver training and creating better judgement within the younger drivers to better equip them to assess the “appropriate speed” rather than just watching the speedo to keep “under the limit”. As you would know, a lot of driving at speed is about the feel of the vehicle.
More often than not an experienced driver will know the appropriate speed of a vehicle by how it is responding. This is the type of thing that can only be learned through experience. For that reason I applaud your backing of rebates for drivers who attend a state accredited professional driver training course.
I would also like to applaud your incentive scheme that rewards drivers for have no previous convictions. NSW had a similar scheme where they issued a Gold Licence to drivers who were conviction free. All others were issued a black licence.
I would like to see the Midlands Highway be made 4 lane similar to the Bass Highway between Devonport and Burnie. However, I also think that we need to look at a solution to getting a lot of the trucks off the road. There needs to be a scheme to provide incentives for using rail transport. I honestly believe that by decreasing the number of trucks on our major highways will decrease the road toll.
1. STREET SIGNS – like Ann above, I have spoken with many residents and tourists who have all indicated that the (a) lack of visiblity and / or (b) no signS at all; are major issues here in Tasmania,may I suggest there should be a regulated minimum sight distance of 30 metres from the actual street corner and an adequate lettering size to allow it to be read and recognised by a motorist driving at that local speed limit.
2. On the highways whilst speeding is an issue there is also the issue of vehicles creating an obstruction by driving at less than the speed limit and thereby causing frustrated following drivers to by necessity speed to overtake in tight locations.
3. In addition to #2 above there is the matter whereby another slow vehicle is travelling behind the first and thereby exacerbating the issue by not overtaking the first slow vehicle when opportune – perhaps a regulation could provide for such a slow second vehicle to maintain a 30 metre (?) overtaking gap to enable faster vehicle/s to pass when safe.
4.The lack of use of indicator lights at round-abouts is a major accident issue – perhaps a TV campaign showing / explaining the prescribed use of indicators at especially double lane round-abouts is warranted to teach drivers.
5. A major issue of note is the Tasmanian habit of actually looking at the passenger whilst speaking and driving – I have experienced drivers in front of me actually doing this at 110 kph and then either driving off the road causing stones to hit my windscreen or wandering into the path of on-coming traffic where my blowing the horn has saved the accident.
Regards,
Mike Turner
I believe that the road extension off Raglan Street onto Connector Park at Youngtown will be a real danger. This will greatly increase the traqffic flow past the Youngtown School.
Hello Michael,
Many thanks for allowing me to comment on your article.
I believe yearly vehicle inspections could not hurt and must help make roads a safer place. Surely you too have seen some of the heaps that are allowed on our roads.
Then we have to control this army of unregistered, uninsured trail bikes ridden by underage, unlicensed riders that race around of an afternoon when school comes out.
Well that’s my immediate thoughts.
Russell Salter.
Michael.
Thank you for inviting comment and for your commitment to improve road safety.
I support the proposal to upgrade the Midland Hwy with dual lanes all the way. An extra bonus would be to create some protective central fencing to prevent head-on collisons. These measures, even though expensive, should reduce the road fatalities.
Having said that, I still think we need to improve rail access for industry to reduce the number of trucks on the highway.
Speed cameras and random breath testing should be continued.
Driver fatigue remains an issue and a part of this is undiagnosed and untreated sleep apneoa. The diagnostic services for sleep apneoa assessment in the North lag behind those available in the South. As one of the key health professionals involved with this service, I have advised the decision makers over a number of years, but the discrepancy persists. It could be fixed with a simple injection of an extra $22,000 per year to the LGH budget for publicly funded sleep studies.
This represents an increase of 33% of the current funding.
Thank you.
I have had thoughts of why road accidents happen, but have never written them down.
I believe most accidents for young or older comes down to the very sad LACK of RESPECT, that is as follows:-
No respect for those at home expecting you home – family or friends.
No respect for passengers carried – family or friends
No respect for other road users – could be family or friends.
No respect for vehicle capabilities.
No respect for road condition.
No respect at all for Ambo’s and Firie’s that have the task of dragging the blood and guts out of wreckage. And copping abuse.
No respect for the Doctors and Nurses putting things together, and copping abuse.
No respect whatsoever for the local Police, who’s task now is to go to a house at all hours, remove their hat and advise the occupant(s) that someone will not be coming home, then listening to the screaming and wailing and in some cases vile abuse.
And finally what about the local council employee, back at the scene a day or two later to straighten some things up only to end up picking up some more body parts or cleaning away the blood.
Can you imagine the local copper going to a door and saying, “well that’s another dickhead off the road”.
And a lot of this problem can go to parents now in their 50’s, Respect, Responsibility & Discipline are absent from upbringing. Its always someone else’s fault.
That’s the longest and most I have ever written and now its out.
i too am horrified at the road toll, this year as well
as shocked at the horrific accident in Victoria that killed four teens.
With all the road improvement the gvt says it will do,
the question remains how can you engineers STUPIDITY out of the
system I have driven on Tasmanian roads for over 35yrs and not had an accident
my question is what’s wrong with our roads?????.
answer the IDIOT behind the wheel.
they don’t see that hooning is wrong or speeding, but that we are trying to spoil their fun…
al they are doing is enjoying themselves that is the problem.
In Holland Sweden and America they crush cars, in Australia we are gutless,
when it come to punishing the offender.
my ageing uncle in the UK went over the speed limit by 6kph and it cost him 400 pounds
they are tuff as tuff over seas we are the marshmallow society of the planet,
and have the problems that go with it.
PS WE LIVE IN AN EXPERT DAMAGED COUNTRY
I just remembered some time ago we were listening to radio 3j,
and the subject was speed cameras, and people who had been
caught by them.
the wining went on for quite some time and a young girl who was with us
got quite fed up with the whole show, so she got on the phone to the station
and said that she had no problems with speed cameras, the asked her the reason for that
she simply replied I DON’T SPEED… that was the end of that talk back.
we the motoring public have to take responsibility for our actions and
be held accountable for them, the radio show simply highlighted the fact
that we don’t.
how many times do you hear on the news. “why doesn’t the GVT do some thing.”
well why dont the motoring public do the right thing/
It’s a case of ” EVERY BODY ELSE BUT ME.”
Hi Michael,
I agree with most but not all of your thoughts regarding speeding. There is “speeding and speeding”. It is a pity that there is only one word for speeding as no differentiation between the motorist trying to do the right thing and the one hooning. Your comment about the reduced limit in the NT is noted but when I last drove there in 1992 there was no open road limit and as far as I know the limit is now 130 kmph as it is in many countries in Europe, except Germany where there is no limit.
You may have read my article in “The Examiner” about a week ago which I have appended below. I have also attached a letter that was published in the RACT mag last year.
There should be a margin allowed of, say 10% over the limit which would allow drivers to concentrate on what they should be doing, watching the road.
I agree with the Midland Highway being upgraded to four lanes. Even though it would not qualify on the mainland with the present traffic numbers our topography in Tas is hillier thus meaning less chance of overtaking.
A popular election issue would be the upgrading on the West Tamar Highway as is a disgrace at present. This affects all Bass as we all have to travel it when go go down the river.
The policing of limits will never be 100% efficient as it all gets down to driver responsibility which means Will’s idea of passing an attitude test is a good idea. Unfortunately there is no way when policing to take into account all relevant factors such as driver competency, conditions on the day and type of car etc. many feel the WT Highway is only safe to 80/90 km which is true when I am driving our little Mazda 323 but when driving our newer 740 BMW 100 km is fine.
Sorry for long message but road safety is something that we all must take seriously.
From The Examiner:
“Ewan Crawford was spot on in the Examiner (Sat 16th) when he wrote about the over emphasis on policing speed limits. Like Ewan, I am not talking about the motorist who travels at 124 kmph in a 60 limit. They should feel the full force of the law.
I am talking about the motorist a few km over the limit. The mathematics are simple. A car travelling at 60kmph travels 1km (1,000 metres) in a minute, ie a rate per second of 16.666 metres, a distance in which a modern car can stop.
Take the example of a child rushing onto the road 16.6m in front of a car the split second after a motorist looks down at their speedo. Presuming the driver can refocus from distance to close-up and then close up to distance in one second, they look up just as the car hits the child. Had they been concentrating on the road they would stop before making contact.
Really it is a “no brainer” unless the purpose is to gain revenue.
The only point I don’t agree with Ewan is the quote “greatly improved roads” He obviously hasn’t driven on the West Tamar Highway lately.
Graeme Barwick, Riverside
Dear all, this has become the most extraordinary public discussion and i encourage it to continue.
Noone here, including me, is pretending to have all the answers but we do all bring ideas, perspective and experience to it…. this is good.
I’m going to carefully read and re-read the contributions and provide recommendations to my colleagues on the nuggets.
Important question: How can we encourage normal, thinking, everyday people to challenge their own belief that ‘I can just get away with this quick phone call, text message, leaning over to pick up something’. It’s the old feeling that it won’t happen to me… I still see this as a real issue for us to consider.
thanks again! Michael Ferguson.
How timely: Canadian research asked drivers to rate their own ability. Virtually EVERYONE thought they were good drivers !
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8479393.stm
From the article:
Young men felt the most superior.
Middle-aged men rated themselves as better than similarly aged drivers, and far superior to younger and older motorists.
Older drivers – aged 65 plus – felt most superior when they compared themselves to motorists of the same age.
I don’t have a problem with speed cameras.
I’m still not sure that last year wasn’t an anomaly in terms of deaths. I can’t see any particular reason that there was such a dramatic increase in the road toll – any comment on this would be welcome. It’s not as though there was a mass death (bus accident etc) to skew the results.
That aside, the biggest issues are still largely cultural attitudes and insufficient driver training, and there probably aren’t simple ways out of them.
That said – a few easy fixes to reduce annoyances on the road:
1. Punitively fine construction / road clearing companies who leave 40kph signs up along the road when there is no work being done. Nothing does more to put workers at risk than being asked to slow down unnecessarily.
2. Increase the speed limit where appropriate. If you want to put double lanes on the midland highway, increase the speed limit to 140. It might then make economic as well as political sense. Similarly elsewhere where the road conditions and traffic load warrant. Put simply – the higher the speed limit, the better the road can afford to be.
3. Make it legal to speed whilst overtaking. The faster an overtaking maneuver is completed, the safer for everyone involved.
4. Look into variable speed signage that takes road conditions and loading into account. It can be done, and there are places where it would be of significant benefit. Obviously it can realistically only be utilised on high value roads, but some of those roads would see both more efficient use and less carnage as a result.
Hi, Michael the actual answer i believe is not that hard, it can be summed up in one sentance ” my familys right to living in safety exceeds your right to drive”. If we all start thinking like that.
A/ Set tough enforcable punishements.
B/ Give the police the numbers and the resouces they need to enforce the laws.
C/ As a sociaty we need to accept responsibility for our own actions.
D/ We need to radically change all our thinking not just the learner drivers and the way we approach road safety.
If a person was to threaten a persons wellbeing with a weapon criminal offence with all prosecution and a possible custodial sentance. If you are found guilty of dangerous driving. The penaltys are not equal yet more people are killed per year with cars than with rifles.
All the best Michael
regards
Greg Schmerl
Hi Michael,
On the issue of inattention that you touched on above, viz: “I can just get away with this quick phone call, text message, leaning over to pick up something’ etc. I would draw your readers’ attention to RACT’s public poliy department’s interest in the results of the US-based Virginia Tech 100-car ‘naturalistic driving’ study – here:
http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?itemno=834
The Study was the first major “instrumented vehicle” project (video cameras and data-transmitters in-car, measuring the normal driving activities); it recorded over 2 million vehicle miles (3.2 million km) and 12-13 months of data collection.
The findings were quite extraordinary. They included:
“Nearly 80 percent of all crashes and 65 percent of all near-crashes involved driver inattention just prior to (i.e., within 3 seconds) the onset of the conflict. (NOTE: prior estimates related to driver inattention as a contributing factor have been in the range of 25 percent of all crashes.)”
It also found that mobile (cell) phones were associated with the highest frequency of “secondary task distraction-related events” for both incidents and near-crashes.
What the Virgina Tech Study implies is that inattention most likely is a bigger problem than current accepted understandings, and needs more examination than we are currently affording it.
It also highlighted the value of studying “non-police-reported” near-incidents or incidents. In the Study, these types of incidents occurred 15 times more than police-reported incidents. The Study argues that only relying on police-reported incidents has limitations: “Drivers often do not remember specific details of a rapidly-occurring event. However, naturalistic studies overcome the obstacle of potentially unreliable eyewitness crash accounts. For example, eyewitness accounts could include a driver or passenger who is in shock or injured or someone who is trying to hide the details of what occurred (due either to embarrassment, fear of prosecution/litigation, or other reasons).”
It really is a fascinating read, the Study.
RACT has called on the Government to carry out more research into inattention in Tasmania – to examine in detail what, exactly, is going on inside a vehicle that actually contributes to it havig a crash – in our State Budget Submission 2010-11 see http://www.ract.com.au/news_and_issues/news_archives/news/19412
This research could utilise the Virginia Tech findings (and other research like MUARC’s report on the effects of text messaging on novice drivers in 2006); and should be carried out at arm’s length from government by one of the road safety institutes in Australia like CARRS-Q or MUARC. In fact, a Tasmanian study could be used as a test-bed or pilot for a national understanding, and could recived Australian Government support8.
RACT has also included this call for inattention research in its upcoming “A Roadmap for the next Tasmanian Government: Priorities for infrastructure and road safety in Tasmania” which will be released to all political parties and media outlets shortly.
cheers,
Vince Taskunas
General Manager, Public Policy and Communications
RACT Ltd
Hi Michael,
I’d like to see the extension of bicycle lanes on main arterial routes throughout Launceston. I’m middle-aged and have decided to begin commuting to work later this year. Two reasons – to get fitter (I have a sedentary job) and also with the introduction of well marked bike lanes it will be a lot safer. Also, in the UK there is the “Cycle to Work Scheme” in which tax payers can receive up to 1000 pounds for purchase of bike and ancillary equipment. The basic ideas behind this is to increase fitness / health, reduce pollution / carbon footprint and to extend the life of road infrastructure. These will not provide the total answer but a muli-pronged approach I believe can deliver significant benefit. It would be great to see the local or federal government offer a similar scheme here in Tasmania.