Four fatal crashes in 12 days in South Australia’s Limestone Coast region have prompted an urgent safety call for the state’s regional roads.
The warning comes as police are still at the scene of a crash at Eight Mile Creek, near Port Macdonnell, where a car struck and killed a man walking on Galpins Road.
Galpins Road at Eight Mile Creek, the site of a serious crash this morning. (ABC South East SA: Josh Brine)
Just two days earlier and only 20 kilometres away at OB Flat, a car hit a cyclist on Glenelg River Road, killing a 17-year-old girl from Compton.
A 23-year-old man from Mount Gambier was arrested yesterday and charged with causing death by careless use of a motor vehicle, and will appear in court at a later date in relation to the crash.
Flowers left at the site of the OB Flat crash that killed a 17-year-old cyclist. (ABC South East SA: Josh Brine)
Last Tuesday, a 46-year-old local man died at Glenroy, between Penola and Naracoorte, after his Toyota ute hit a tree.
It followed the death of a 68-year-old Mount Gambier man on June 17 who was hit by a car on the Jubilee Highway West at Mount Gambier.
The acting officer in charge of the Limestone Coast Local Service Area, Superintendent Nick Patterson, said the incidents served as a wake-up call to the community.
“We should be paying more and more attention [to] this,” he said.
“[With] the allure of technology and the reduction of attention spans generally across society, we would urge all drivers to remain highly focused on one task.
Nick Patterson says emergency services are feeling the effects of multiple traumatic road accidents in succession. (ABC South East SA: Josh Brine)
“And that task is driving while you’re on the road in charge of a vehicle.”
Before June 17, one fatal crash was recorded in the South East so far this year.
He said four crashes in quick succession had an impact on emergency services.
“You can’t underestimate the toll of repeated exposures to incidents like this,”
he said.
“The longer that you serve your regional area, the higher the chance that you’re going to go to something like this where you might know someone involved, or they’re a relative of people that you know.”
Calls to ‘look after’ each other
Get Home Safe Foundation president Darren Davis has run road safety education programs across the South East and regional SA for a decade.
He said road deaths are often reported “as statistics”, which “dehumanised” the pain it caused families.
Darren Davis says the public needs to hear the personal stories of road crash victims. (ABC News: James Wakelin)
“We need a wake-up call because we’re just taking our roads for granted,” Mr Davis said.
“When you’ve sat down with someone and seen that their whole life has been drained out of their eyes and they’re never going to recover because their son, their daughter has been killed on the roads.”
Mr Davis added that the deaths of two pedestrians and a cyclist as part of the run of road deaths showed more care needed to be given to “vulnerable” road users.
A pedestrian was killed when he was struck by a car on Jubilee Highway West at Mount Gambier on June 18. (ABC South East SA: Josh Brine)
“Those vulnerable road users that are around us, we’ve got to look after them,” he added.
“That person on a bike, that person crossing the road is loved by a family, and they just want to see that person at home safe that night.“
Lives lost increase
Meanwhile, a man is in a critical condition in hospital after being involved in a single-car crash at Brinkley, near Murray Bridge, this morning.
At Coober Pedy, in the state’s far north, an 84-year-old man died in hospital on Saturday after he was hit while riding a mobility scooter on Thursday.
So far, 56 people have died on South Australian roads this year, compared to 38 at the same time last year.
SA Police Traffic Services Branch Inspector Mick Turnbull said 38 per cent of lives lost have been contributed to dangerous road use and 29 per cent to people failing to wear seat belts.
“Why people aren’t wearing their seatbelts is astounding, really,” he said.
“That’s [been] part of our road safety campaigns for many years.”
Inspector Turnbull added that 60 per cent of lives lost on SA roads this year have been on regional roads.
