Indigenous Road Safety Academy CEO Martina Hazelbane says education is vital in reducing the number of pedestrian strikes and road crashes in the NT

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, if you're a regular listener to the show, you'll
know that in recent times there's been absolute carnage on
Northern Territory roads, with multiple lives lost through crashes, pedestrians,
strikes and hit and runs. A sixty six year old
male pedestrian was the most recent to lose his life
after being struck by two cars in Palmerston last Friday. Now,

(00:20):
one group that is dedicated to stopping tragedies like this
is the Indigenous Road Safety Academy and their CEO and
Larakia woman Martina Hazel Bain, joins me on the line
right now. Good morning to you, Martina.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Good morning Katie, thank you for the invite.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Lovely to have you on the show. Now, Martina, tell
us what exactly does the Indigenous Road Safety Academy.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Do, Katie? Thank you. The Indigenous Road Safety Academy has
the exclusive license with Driver that World to utilize their
multi award winning multisensory ed Tech Learner Driver program and
we have the license to roll it out in eight
Aboriginal languages.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah right, So what exactly does that mean you head
out to those remote communities and try to educate people
in the communities.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Absolutely, so we go out to remote Aboriginal communities nationally,
so all around Australia, and we take our role out
mats and our digital tools and our resources and we
go out and we educate in first language on the
ground in the community.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
And do you reckon that that's part of the problem sometimes, Martina,
is making sure that people are actually, you know, are
educated in their first language so that you know that
they truly understand some of the different things that are
happening on the roads.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Absolutely, if you can't understand English, and you can't understand
the road uses handbook and you don't read or write English,
how are you going to understand the road books?

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, I think it's a very fair point, Martina. What
are you reasons contributing at the moment to the high
number of pedestrians strikes that we're seeing here in the
Northern Territory.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Look, I certainly think you know, speeding, distraction, alcohol and
drugs is also a factor. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and just
people not being people being complacent. Katie, you know, pedestrians
do have a right of way on the road.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
What do you think needs to happen or how do
you think we can potentially try to minimize the pedestrian
strikes that we're seeing.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Look, I certainly don't have all the answers, but you know,
I think education is certainly a major factor. Educate. We
need to educate our people, We need to educate our community,
We need to educate society.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
And Martina, when you go out to the communities and
you've got you know, you've got the roadmaps and things
that are in first language, what's the reaction that you get.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
The reaction is remarkable in communities. It's highly engaging, proactive,
it's educational. You get a whole community involvement, and it's
what we need. Katie.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, it's Look, something's got to change at the moment, because,
as I said, we've like it has been a terrible
few weeks. I mean, yeah, like I knows it. You know,
when you look at those at the road statistics and
you look at the number of fatalities, it's horrendous. But
then there's also so many other crashes that happen, and

(03:29):
so many other things that happen where they're not fatalities,
but people are really seriously injured.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Absolutely. Look, and you know, every life lost is such
a tragedy. You know, in my own family structure. I've
experienced road trauma and you know, lots of words for deaths,
and you know, everyone feels that, you feel as a family,
you feel as a community, and we want to be
able to reduce we want to be able to reduce
those deaths on the roads.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Martina, what's part of the plan for the Indigenous Road
Safety Academy? Do you plan to work with some of
the other agencies like Larichia Nation and DIPPLE and you know,
others here in the territory to try and address those issues.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Absolutely locally, you know, Earthil. We are always actively seeking
partnerships in the community, you know, with government agencies, corporate entities,
indigenous organizations, because we strongly believe that by collaborative, by
being collaborative, you know, we're able to reach those sustainable

(04:28):
goals and improve the lives of you know, my people
really and I.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Know, look like you touched on then you this is
something that is very dear to your heart because your
own family has been impacted in different ways with some
with devastating things happening on the roads.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, yeah, it has, it has, and I'm just going
to say it again. You know, every life lost is
a tragedy. It really is.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Well, Martina, I really appreciate your time. It's lovely to
talk to you and and the work that you're doing.
I think it's fantastic work and if we can see
it rolled out in more locations, hopefully we can see
a minimization in the harm that we're experiencing on our roads.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Absolutely, Katie. You know if we all work together, we
as a community, we can address these issues together.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah. Well, Indigenous Road Safety Academy CEO and Larichie a woman,
Martina Hazelbain, thank you so much for your.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Time and thank you for having me. Katie.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Thank you