Road toll frustrates police
A frustrated Police Commissioner says he is running out of ideas on how to get the road safety message through to motorists after five fatalities in 72 hours.
The deaths brought the State's road toll to 45 - the worst start to the year in the past five years.
The most recent crash involved a male cyclist who was hit by a car while riding without a helmet or lights in Willetton about 6am yesterday.
He has been identified as a 65-year-old man from China who was visiting family in WA.
Two motorcyclists died in separate crashes on Saturday, along with a passenger in a van that was hit from behind by a truck during heavy fog on the Kwinana Freeway. The truck driver also died.
With the Easter long weekend approaching, Karl O'Callaghan said he and his staff were wondering if there was anything they could do or say that would make a difference to the behaviour of drivers.
"It was very difficult for us to work out what we were going to say to the public of WA this time that we haven't said before and hasn't been ignored before," he told ABC Radio.
"People can criticise us for not enough police on the roads, but ultimately it is the people who have their hands on the wheel that can make the difference."
Mr O'Callaghan said the issue of driver distraction was an area where a lot of effort had been made to reinforce key safety messages.
But he had recently witnessed people eating their breakfast in their cars, or turning around while driving to chastise their children.
"I think we've probably bashed up the driving public community enough about tough penalties and giving people multiple infringements," Mr O'Callaghan said.
"I think probably the next stage is to do much more on the education front and try to repeat messages so people get it and keep making it sink in." Police also hit back yesterday at claims they ignored warnings about the freeway fog that led to the death of two men on Saturday.
A witness has claimed to have called triple-0 about 2am - about 2½ hours before the accident - to report the danger.
A check of the police triple-0 call sheet showed no calls had been received until 3.43am.
Main Roads was then advised within 10 minutes and sent a road crew but it arrived after the accident.
Another call had been received closer to midnight regarding a separate crash on nearby Thomas Road but officers who attended the accident did not consider the smoke in the area to be a safety issue when they left about 1.20am.
"It's a very sad situation and I don't know what caused this crash but if you are driving and you can't see, then you shouldn't be proceeding anyway, whether it's fog or rain or hail, there is no excuse for driving a car when you have no visibility," Mr O'Callaghan said.
