POLICE want Swan Hill residents to understand the personal toll of road collisions as the number of lives lost on Victoria’s roads climbs at a staggering rate.
The morning after conducting a neighbourhood policing forum in Mildura, Western Region Division 6 Acting Superintendent Tom Nairn had to update the numbers before addressing Swan Hill residents.
On Thursday 262 lives had been lost on Victoria’s roads, a 20 per cent increase from the 218 fatalities recorded at the same time last year, and three more than the previous evening.
Supt Nairn said a single death on Victorian roads was unacceptable.
“We’ve had far too many road fatalities in Victoria, far too many nationally, and certainly far too many locally,” he said.
“The ripple effects from just a single road death in small communities such as these are just tremendous.
“It is a really difficult part of this job and we are very conscious of the fact that our road policing responders see this stuff all too regularly.
“We’re not on our own here – it’s also our fire services, our ambulance services, it’s anyone who responds to road trauma, it affects them deeply.”
Supt Nairn said motorists should expect to see an increased number of uniformed officers taking part in road policing.
“We are going to continue to maintain a strong focus on road policing in this area, but people will see not only our road policing specialists out on the roads,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter where you work, whether you’re a detective or a frontline uniformed officer, it doesn’t matter what you do, we expect to see our people out on the roads.
“(They will be) detecting breaches of the road law, intercepting vehicles and testing people for alcohol and drugs.”
Supt Nairn said the solution was for drivers just needed to stop and think, “not a hard ask”.
“There’s a tendency for people within our community to think that road trauma happens to other people,” he said.
“They think it doesn’t happen to themselves and it’s not something they need to be concerned about.
“It does happen to people like you, it does happen to people in this community.
“Stop and think.”
Pain of delivering awful news
SWAN Hill highway patrol sergeant Zac Bull says loss of life on the region’s roads has a considerable effect on himself and his colleagues.
“Attending serious road collisions is a really bad job,” he said.
“We can go and manage traffic incidents all we want, we can stand at traffic posts, and help people out of cars that they’ve become stuck in.
“We’re there all the way up to getting in the ambulance, or even worse, waiting for the coroner’s van to come pick them up.
“Obviously that side is terrible, but there’s something even worse than that – actually having to walk up and knock on a family’s door and let them know that their loved one won’t be coming home.
“We know that Christmas is around the corner, and we still have to be the ones to knock at the door and ask these parents or family members to take a seat and have a chat.
“I’d happily roll up to 50 accidents than just have to knock on one door and tell them they won’t see their loved one return home.
“That’s the only thing that I hate about the job.”
Sgt Bull said he was hoping motorists would hear his call for more empathy on the roads.
“I think that some people are just in it for themselves,” he said.
“They’ve got somewhere they’ve got to go, and it’s their way or the highway.
“The only thing that is going to stop people from having road accidents is to have them think of their own family.
“Every single time they jump in the car and buckle up, they should be thinking about their friends and their families.
“Maybe that will force them to think about their speed and the use of their mobile phone.”
Sgt Bull had no sympathy for drivers who made the road a dangerous place, including those distracted or speeding.
“We’re no strangers to seeing all kinds of distraction offences,” he said.
“Some of the high speeds we see, my god, people just need to slow down.
“You can’t tell what’s coming towards you, the amount of drug and drink-drivers that we are finding is having a real impact on our road toll.
“If we start to think a bit more about other people, the road toll might come down.”
