Stop, or you may be next

By Shaun Inguanzo
STOP killing yourselves.
That’s the emotional message from senior police officers to City of Casey motorists this week after shocking statistics revealed that the city has become a major contributor to Victoria’s road toll.
Assistant Commissioner Ken Lay said people were ultimately responsible for the rising road toll – not police.
“No matter how hard police work on this, or how many times we warn people, it comes back to the person who gets behind the wheel of the car.
“Unless they’re willing to do the right thing and take responsibility for their actions it doesn’t matter what police do.”
Mr Lay said 171 people had died on Victorian roads this year with 58 of those from region five, and 16 specifically from Greater Dandenong, Casey and Cardinia.
The region, which also includes Bairnsdale – another trouble spot, according to Mr Lay – bears the highest road toll of any Victorian police region this year.
Mr Lay visited the Greater Dandenong Traffic Management Unit this week to meet with police officers and find out what was causing the division’s road toll to skyrocket.
“Speed, alcohol, and fatigue continue to be the biggest contributors to fatalities,” Mr Lay said.
“We’ve had a number of really big operations over the last six months in division two, but we’re still seeing an increase in the number of fatalities, which is unusual.
“One of the things that really worries me is the number of young people we are seeing involved.”
Mr Lay said that 30 per cent of drivers who have died on the region’s roads this year were P-Platers.
He said police were confident that the new Graduated Licensing System, which extends the P-Plate period and requires a minimum 120 hours driving experience on L-Plates, would help to reduce the young driver road toll.
Mr Lay said despite police feeling helpless, they would still endeavour to make the roads safer.
“We’re trying to mark up our cars in different ways to make our presence more visible,” he said.
“We’re running a trial down at Frankston so we’ll see how that goes.
“We’re also taking a better look at the intel available to traffic units so we can better target resources.”
Mr Lay said he was not aware of any social problems in the region that might be contributing to peoples’ attitudes and behaviour on the road.