Confronting new ad campaign targets one dangerous driver behaviour
A confronting new ad campaign to tackle the soaring road toll reveals using a mobile phone while driving is effectively like being blind behind the wheel.
The Transport Accident Commission ad Driving Blind says a glance at your mobile phone while driving is the same as somebody covering your eyes with their hands.
“When you’re on your phone, you’re driving blind,” the ad says.
The new campaign comes as the road toll climbs across the country.
In Victoria the current road toll is 137 compared to 88 at the same time last year, an increase of 55.7 per cent.
To date 160 people have lost their lives on NSW roads, compared to 150 this time last year.
In Queensland, road fatalities have risen to 83 – a 14-year-old boy was killed in a crash and a mother and her four children died on the state’s roads this week.
On Thursday afternoon, a one-year-old baby became the 11th road fatality on the state’s roads in one week.
There have already been 52 fatalities in South Australia, compared to 80 for the whole of 2018 and 74 so far in Western Australia, compared to a total of 70 for last year.
The average annual road toll in Tasmania is 36 and 13 people have been killed while driving in the Northern Territory.
Mobile phones are a major factor in fatal and serious injury crashes with a TAC survey of 1742 Victorians, aged 18 to 60, revealing a third used the devices illegally while driving.
Assistant Commissioner for Road Policing Stephen Leane urged drivers to play their role to prevent more deaths, and not just leave it to police or experts to solve.
Mr Leane said it was human nature for drivers to believe they are invincible, but the road toll proved otherwise.
"We're all bulletproof, particularly younger people," he said.
"The reality is you don't know who the other driver is on the other side of the road and what they're going to do."
A summit will be held in Victoria today in a bid to tackle the state’s climbing road toll.
Representatives from Victoria Police, the Transport Accident Commission and state government will attend to try and find a fix.
with AAP
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