Review road safety strategy: ex-cop
WA's entire road safety strategy should be reviewed after the deaths of 26 people in traffic crashes in just over a month, says former police superintendent Dave Parkinson.
The high-profile retired policeman's comments came as Main Roads revealed it would review safety at a south-eastern suburbs intersection where two people have died in fatal crashes in two weeks.
Mr Parkinson wants authorities to consider introducing psychological tests for driver's licences to deal with increasing aggression on the roads and believes a review is needed of road safety media campaigns, driver training and the Road Safety Council's approach.
He also believes more technology should be used for enforcement, including point-to-point cameras, which measure average speed.
The Road Safety Council recommended a point-to-point camera trial in the last Budget but the State Government did not support it.
Mr Parkinson comments come after the State's road toll reached 26 - at least double the year-to-date road tolls stretching back to 2009.
The retired officer believes road infrastructure is failing to keep up with the increasing population and there are not enough police officers to enforce the law.
He said he spoke to officers who were despairing because they did not know what else to do to help cut the toll.
"You can patrol, actively target (offenders), work on intelligence from crash sites and hoon sightings but you haven't got a magic wand - you can't change people's personalities or attitudes," he said.
"Out on the roads you see the aggression and I haven't got an answer for that."
Mr Parkinson said double demerits helped improve behaviour but he feared motorists were becoming desensitised to safety messages.
The Office of Road Safety said its campaigns, which aimed to raise awareness, change behaviour and support police, were directed by the Towards Zero road safety strategy.
Its advertisements target drink-driving, speeding, distractions, seatbelt use, indigenous road safety and safer vehicles.
It tests concepts with a sample of the target audience and monitors and reviews its campaigns.
Main Roads said yesterday it would review safety at the intersection of Tonkin Highway and Gosnells Road after mother Kayla Spiteri, 21, was killed on Sunday, two weeks after Keith Mitchell, 72, died after a crash at the same spot.
Main Roads said the site had not been a priority for traffic signals as there had been a "relatively low" 55 crashes and no deaths from 2007 to 2011. It had only one record of a request for lights, in 2007.
