The safe road home

Every month, the Australian Road Deaths Monthly Bulletin publishes the number of people that died on the nation's roads.

The number for March 2020, 100 people. This is how many people died on the road in March. In the world, the number of people dying each year from car crashes, more than one million.

So, it begs the question, why are Australian governments not doing more to keep people safe.

We know that they are doing things. There are RBT's, seatbelt laws, speed cameras, tv campaigns and more.

We also know that there has been a reduction in the number of crashes compared to decades ago. In fact, the March 2020 number of 100 lives lost is lower than the March 2019 number.

Yes, there has been a reduction in the deaths. Yet, lives are still being lost, and things that could be done are not being done.

There are plenty of things that the government could do.

Getting older cars of the road that are overrepresented in crash statistics.

Japan, as part of their economic stimulus plan, way back in 2009, was encouraging people to buy newer cars. Offering them money to scrap their older cars and buy newer ones.

A program that Australia could adopt on a big scale. Doing this not as an economic stimulus but to save lives.

Australian design rules set the minimum standard for car designs. The designs could be of a higher standard.

The rules could oblige car companies to release only 5 star-safety rated cars on the road.

Put in the best technologies. In some cases, these technologies have existed for decades.

The Volvo VESC unveiled in 1972, had cushioned seats to protect backseat passengers. Reinforced side doors to better protect against side collisions. They even had rear cameras and remembering this was 1972. And this was not the first-time cameras were used. There was the Buick's 1956 concept car which had a camera.

The problem with experimental safety vehicle car features like those in the VESC? They were not always put into production cars. The cars that you and your family drive around in that is.

In fact, there are still safety features that have not become standard in cars. When they do become standard, it is often a long time after the technology is created.

So, why is not more being done to keep people safe.

Can the normal reasons that stop action apply?

Is it not a vote winner to ensure that people on the roads are safe?

Some of the issues certainly are not campaign issues, like Australian design rules. Many of us may not even know what they are, let alone campaign to strengthen them.

Is there a powerful lobby wanting to stop safety improvements? Car companies especially traditionally have resisted.

Motorists we know have issues with speed cameras, and speed limit reductions. Is it their resistance that is killing people?

Is it a matter of funding; the government simply does not want to spend the money?

Surely it cannot be funding issues why people die.

The government seems to have found billions of dollars, seemly overnight, to respond to COVID-19.

Money to boost unemployment benefits, provide one-off payments, and paying the wages of many workers. The last one, initially budgeted at 140 billion dollars.

If they can get, print, borrow that kind of money than 3 billion dollars per year is doable.

The 3 billion is the minimum amount that a government report, the Inquiry Into The National Road Safety Strategy 2011-2020 in 2018, called for. In order to keep far more people safe on our roads.

The same report noted that when it came to recommendations, "several have been on the agenda for decades. Many safety solutions are known and some are in play to some degree, while others still sit on the shelf, often due to a lack of capacity and resources."

The money could literally save lives.

Ensuring safer roads would according to the report, "…reduce fatal and serious injuries by more than 30% by improving road infrastructure to achieve more than 75% of travel on 3-star or better roads for all road users. Over the life of the improvements more than 88,000 deaths and serious injuries would be avoided, saving over $100 billion in crash costs to the Australian economy"

Why not make the minimum 6 or even 12 billion? Getting even more done on the nation's roads.

If the government is not going to do that, how about a well-resourced national memorial.

There are the makeshift memorials throughout the country. A cross, flowers, photos, for those that have been killed by cars.

If the government is not willing to pay for all the road improvements, they can pay for this.

A well-funded national memorial akin to the war memorial. In memory of the tens of thousands of people in this country that have died because of car crashes. And at times, because of our failure to keep them safe.