Page 2674 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 26 September 2007
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39-year-olds. This is a good thing, but this is where the statistics become worrying. There was a 7.4 per cent increase in road deaths in the 40 to 59 age group. Furthermore, there was an 8.3 per cent increase in road deaths of those aged 60 years plus. Comparing these statistics with those of young drivers over the same period shows that, in fact, there was a reduction in road deaths of younger drivers.
The current trend of beating the road user into submission is not working, as there are still too many crashes across the territory. Fortunately for us, the majority are not fatal. As members would be aware, the trend to more energy efficient transport is gaining impetus, and the crash rates for motorcyclists have also decreased overall.
The ACT Labor government, under the auspices of the Minister for Territory and Municipal Services has, through the NRMA-ACT Road Trust, invested $35,000 over the last three years in the community organised voluntary training, which has seen a steady improvement in crash rates for those motorcyclists.
My motion calls on the ACT government to reward road users with extra points for the completion of further driver and rider education. I propose the awarding of two additional points for the successful completion of an accredited vehicle control and road craft awareness course. I encourage members to support this motion, and call on the ACT government again to lead the nation.
MR PRATT (Brindabella) (11.58): The opposition welcomes the opportunity to speak in the debate on this motion today. We recognise the growing community concern over road safety. Today we have had presented to us data, which Mr Gentleman says runs contrary to the consistent feedback from other jurisdictions, on the rates of accidents and who is involved in those accidents. Again, we see this selective spinning of data in order to present a rosy picture about the government’s wonderful performance in maintaining safe roads in the ACT. We are not getting a comprehensive analysis of that data. Also, the presentation we have had here this morning ignored the evidence that the community is concerned about the rate of accidents and the rate of bad driver behaviour here in the ACT.
Mr Gentleman: What evidence?
MR PRATT: I heard you chaps in total silence, so let us see if we can reciprocate, shall we? What we see here is a total ignorance of the concerns expressed by the public and of some of the more extreme examples of bad driver behaviour. A young driver killed an elderly lady—a driver who may well have been drug affected. A young P-plate driver belly flopped his car into somebody’s swimming pool late at night. We have seen drag racing down Sturt Avenue, resulting in serious accidents, as well as many other examples of extreme driver behaviour. Concerns expressed by the community about the growing incidence of road rage would indicate that this government is still not doing enough to make our roads safe. The government, as one of its many duties of care, has a responsibility to do that.
We heard Mr Gentleman talk this morning about P-plate drivers. P-plate driver incidents involving deaths of drivers and multiple passenger loads are increasing across the country. Across the country, there have been statistics and strong information that P-plate driver deaths, and multiple passenger deaths as a
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