00:10well everyone firstly thanks so much for joining us here today as part of our launch for rural
00:14road safety month a very important activity or campaign from the australian road safety
00:19foundation's standpoint we are committed to improving road trauma outcomes right across
00:25the country no matter what the time of year no matter where that road might be road safety is an
00:31issue that covers this entire country and sadly over the last four or five years in fact since
00:362020 we've seen an incremental increase in road trauma year on year and that's simply something
00:41that's that is just not acceptable what's also not acceptable is when we're seeing the amount of
00:46deaths and injuries that are occurring on our regional and rural roads and i think there is
00:51a misconception that somehow the road is the only problem now the roads are a part of the solution
00:57there's no doubt about that and and we need to strive to continue to have better road conditions
01:02but ultimately it does come back to how we as road users whether we're pedestrians we're riding bikes
01:09of any type we're driving any sort of vehicle it's up to each and every one of us to take
01:14on that level
01:15of personal responsibility and sadly what we see is a complete i guess lack of uh of concentration
01:21around those things there's an apathy that's existing where people think that roads that because
01:26they drive them every day or that it's a regional road that appears to have less traffic that somehow
01:32that there's no risk on that road and the reality is that every road has risks it's just that the
01:37regional road risks are slightly different compared to what we might see in the city sadly what we are
01:42seeing here and the images behind us not only on the banner but represented by the 906 postcards that
01:49are around this field it shows the number of people that have been that have been lost in rural road
01:54crashes in just 12 months and sadly that's a 10 increase on the year before so it is a massive
02:02problem
02:02the knock-on effect in every community is huge especially in places like where we are today it's it's a
02:09regional impact that affects a community and people know people in these towns so when someone is taken
02:15from us in a in a road crash sadly that impact is felt right across the entire community yeah i
02:21think
02:21there's again this belief that that because it's a regional area and that there is less traffic around
02:25that somehow that the risk is is zero and the reality is that the risks are just going to be
02:30different
02:31to what we might see in a city now those risks might be higher traveling speeds a less forgiving roadside
02:37treatment so in other words if a car or a vehicle does leave the road the consequence of that error
02:42can be far more catastrophic help is also a long way away so even somebody finding you even somebody
02:50knowing that the crash has happened they're vital time or the vital slices of time that can make the
02:56difference between someone surviving an incident and someone sadly losing their life so the complexity
03:01around a regional road is is simply that there is a different type of risk and we should also say
03:06too
03:06things like animals wildlife those sorts of things are an additional risk that generally speaking in
03:12the city we're generally not used to dealing with fixing a culture of i guess apathy is an enormous
03:19challenge and it's an endurance event it takes events like we're doing today to try and raise the
03:24level of awareness around those risks that are out there it is a cultural change i think as i've often
03:30said before you know yes we need better roads yes we need safer cars yes we need more enforcement
03:34but ultimately it comes back to the choices that that people are making so that could be things
03:39around distraction could be wearing the seat belt again basic things but things i think so often
03:44people tend to to underestimate the benefit of
03:51so in august we are saying road safety is your responsibility understand your behavior on the road
03:59talk to others about their behavior on the road and in august we're saying take a breather check your car
04:06and make sure you drive to your local conditions road safety is everyone's responsibility and we want
04:12everyone to have a role in this this is not the responsibility of any one level of government it is
04:18not the responsibility of car manufacturers it's up to each and every one of us to make sure that in
04:23august and in every month that we take responsibility for our actions on the road so don't drive when
04:30we're tired don't drink and drive don't take drugs check your car make sure it is fit for the road
04:37and
04:38make sure that we are driving to the local conditions that we know can change rapidly across rural communities
04:43road safety is everyone's responsibility it's everyone's business because in our communities we know
04:49the people that are impacted by road trauma we know that the industries and the communities that will
04:55have those knock-on effects and we want to make sure as a community that we're as safe for each
04:59other
05:00as we are for ourselves and our own family this community is not immune from the impacts of road
05:06trauma in high school i lost two school mates to road trauma accidents and what i think is incredibly
05:13important is that each and every community across rural and regional australia we all think
05:18our roads are okay or we know how to drive to the conditions what august is about rural road safety
05:25month is about people thinking about those local conditions people thinking about road safety
05:30and that should be in each and every regional rural community across this country a lot of the time we
05:36get into our cars and we switch off we put a podcast on an audio book we listen to the
05:41radio
05:42uh we start thinking about work or family commitments uh we think that's the the time it is it's going
05:50to
05:50take me x number of minutes or hours to get to a certain location and that becomes the driving force
05:56behind what we're doing behind the wheel so rural road safety month is about understanding
06:02that those things that complacency can lead to road trauma in our local communities even when we know them
06:08really really really well
06:11you
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