Letter to editor: Plan
to link demerit points to road fatalities
From The West Australian
By Kevin Anderson (from Winthrop)
January 16, 2007
A senior policeman
and the Road Safety Council want random periods of double demerit
points as part of an attempt to reduce WA’s road toll.
Insp. John Gibson, a police officer for 38 years, said double demerits
should be imposed once a month on dates to be kept secret.
“We have got to try anything to try to get people to slow down
and it appears that, in the times they have double demerits, there
seems to be a difference on our roads,” he said.
Road Safety Council chairman Grant Dorrington said double demerits
should be considered as a way to lower the road toll — which
climbed to 11 this year after three deaths yesterday — provided
more was also spent on driver education.
“It may be that they (double demerit periods) need to be randomly
mixed more often,” he said. “If you do enforcement all
the time with no education, that’s not fair.
“So it’s a balance — you have to get your mixture
of educating people in all areas. At the same time you’ve got
to make sure that your enforcement is very clear and very strong —
like with double demerit points.”
The mounting carnage on WA roads has seen the State record one of
its worst starts to the year.
A woman died after her car rolled on Great Northern Highway, 20km
south of Bindoon, about 6pm yesterday. It is understood she was the
sole occupant of the vehicle, which caught fire in the crash.
Earlier, a 43-year-old man was killed about 3am as he tried to cross
Great Eastern Highway on foot near the intersection of Cornwall Street
in Lathlain. He was hit by a Hyundai sedan driven by a 23-year-old
man and died instantly.
A 24-year-old man died after losing control of his motorcycle on Marmion
Avenue, Padbury, about 1am.
He failed to handle a bend near Forrest Road, clipped the kerb and
was flung into trees on the median strip. He died at the scene.
The spate of deaths comes after a horror year with a road toll of
204 — the highest in five years and up from 162 in 2005.
“Every one of those is a drama for police, hospitals and the
other people who attend the scene and it’s been a horrible start
to the year for the families affected,” Insp. Gibson said.
“It seems to be the same recurring problems — fatigue
and inattention have been factors — and it seems people just
will not accept the fact that they could be the next fatality.”
Mr Dorrington said WA’s high road toll was fuelled in part by
the State’s economic boom. “One byproduct of a very vibrant
economy is you end up with more people travelling, more people with
cars, more people drinking,” he said. The negative of this was
more road deaths.
