00:00Queensland's road toll is rapidly rising.
00:07We are in a road safety crisis.
00:10After a record low in 2019, 302 people died on our roads last year.
00:17Already this year there's been more than 250 fatalities.
00:22I'd say from 2013 to 2019 there was a concerted effort in road safety across Queensland and it really did have amazing results.
00:32And then we had COVID and rightly or wrongly road safety was no longer the priority.
00:39Enforcement hours have decreased since the COVID pandemic but we're trying to turn that around.
00:46In 2019 police logged about 890,000 road safety enforcement hours. By 2024 it fell to fewer than 500,000.
00:57Certainly has been a reduction and some of that can be attributed to the way we actually record this information.
01:03But police also point to a front line under pressure.
01:07The increased calls for service around domestic and family violence and also the youth crime space has certainly put pressure on our front line.
01:15Police were also diverted from their usual traffic duties during COVID.
01:21Mark Wheeler warns that's led to a change in driver behaviour for the worse.
01:26And I think that there are generations of young road users and drivers who have never been intercepted.
01:34We've had a change in driver behaviour due to the lack of law enforcement.
01:38Road safety advocates are calling for a target of one random breath test per driver every year.
01:44That would equate to more than 4 million tests annually.
01:48At the end of this year, if we're gold standard, we should have over 4 million RBT.
01:52Giving an arbitrary number I don't believe is helpful.
01:57In 2018-19 police conducted 2.66 million RBTs.
02:03After dipping during COVID in 2024-25, they did 2.14 million tests.
02:10The overall number of drink driving offences has remained fairly steady.
02:15Police insist they're already ramping up their efforts, so far logging more than 390,000 enforcement hours this year.
02:25But advocates warn Queensland's road safety crisis has no quick fix.
02:31You don't get results unless road safety is visible.
02:34You don't get results unless anyone has no idea ofăĄ.
02:44You don't want to cut your bist showcase on anyugenics or carballs in 2001.
02:47You don't want to cut in horrible weapons.
02:51Number 4.
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