10 April 2012

Low Easter Road Toll Figures Encouraging

The final Easter holiday road toll figures were announced today by Jon White, CEO of ANZPAA the agency that serves Police Commissioners in both Australia and New Zealand.

The latest official figures for 5-9 April 2012 show 11 lives were lost on Australian roads and no deaths were recorded on New Zealand roads, compared to 25 lives lost in both countries last Easter (2011).

Mr White said that the figures were very encouraging: “The low road toll shows that to some extent people are taking responsibility for their actions and are driving with more care and consideration for others on the road.”

“Death, injuries and disabilities resulting from road accidents inflict considerable pain and suffering on individuals, families and communities, as well as impacting on other road users, emergency service providers, health workers and others,” said Mr White.

The low road toll has set a new milestone in ensuring the public focus on the key issues that cause most deaths and injuries - excessive speed, fatigue, driver inattention and drink and drug-affected driving.

Police Commissioners have targeted road safety issues for some time but joined recently to implement an Australia and New Zealand wide campaign called Operation Crossroads. The high-visibility operation sees police targeting these known issues.

“Police Commissioners have continued to focus on reducing the high road toll numbers in their own jurisdictions over holiday periods. However, road safety is so important they have implemented an operation that extends beyond their own borders to draw public attention to this issue.

“While the annual number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads is reducing overall, it should be completely unacceptable to everyone that truly non-accidental deaths and injuries occur at all. We should never be complacent about the huge loss of life experienced on our roads every year. Police will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that this downward trend continues,” said Mr White.

The Easter holiday period road toll, which began last Friday and ran till the end of Monday, coincided with Operation Crossroads.

Jurisdiction

Current Year
(2012)

Australian Capital Territory

0

New South Wales

3

New Zealand

0

Northern Territory

3

Queensland

1

South Australia

1

Tasmania

0

Victoria

3

Western Australia

0

Total

11

##ENDS##

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