Reducing road trauma

Keeping road trauma to a minimum will be the focus of local police operations dover the holiday break. Baw Baw police services area recorded its first fatality for the year last week and division five road policing advisor senior sergeant Jason Hullick said police want to keep it at one. Sen sgt Hullick said one death was too many and reducing the impact of road trauma would be the central focus of police over coming weeks. Road statistics show only one fatality, but serious injury collisions were almost double last year’s figures. Sen sgt Hullick said the number of serious injury collisions was alarming. “The difference between walking away, a serious injury or being killed can be millimetres. Cars sometimes miss large trees by a paint scraping. “It is a concern because these serious injury collisions could easily have been fatalities,” he said. He said the number of serious injury collisions increased 73 per cent in 12 months from 38 last year to 66 this year. He said the number of female serious injury collisions was of particular concern, increasing three-fold from eight last year to 23 this year. He said other regional areas across the state recorded lower statistics because of lockdown periods and less cars on the road but Baw Baw’s figures had gone against the trend. While sen sgt Hullick said there was no particular theme or cause for the collisions, he said distraction was the biggest factor. He said young people particularly were distracted by mobile phones – not necessarily taking phone calls but texting or engaging with people via social media while driving. Whether it’s inexperience or distraction, he said it might be only a small mistake that could end up a fatality or serious injury. “They are all recipes for disaster,” he said.