Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now we've also been discussing today and certainly caught up
with the Minister Bill Yan a little earlier today because
we know the Member for Nightcliff Cat mcnamaras, called on
the government to fix Baggott Road to prevent pedestrian strikes
and fatalities. So she started a petition well pushing for
an urgent safety review to be conducted looking at the
(00:22):
conditions for pedestrians and cyclists and is calling for better
infrastructure around bus stops, more lighting and a review of
speed limits along Baggott Road. Now, Bill Yan had said
that this is something that the Department is looking at.
But joining us on the line right now is the
Pedestrian Council of Australia's CEO, Harold Screwby. Good morning to you, Harold.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Are you yeah, really good? Great to have you on
the show. Harold.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
What are the stats Showers in regards to pedestrian fatalities
and strikes in the Northern Territory.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Look, the good news the Northern Territory is that your
road top has come down significantly this year over last year,
over the last twelve months. In fact, you're down for
the Northern Territory overall you're down fifty six percent. When
it comes to well, that's actually for pedestrians. You had
(01:19):
sixteen last year or the previous twelve months, it's down
to seven, which is back down to twenty twenty one figures.
That's very very good. You're overall the overall deaths in
the Northern Territory are down thirty five percent as well,
sixty two last twelve months. Forty Now, now the bad
(01:44):
data is that you are still fifteen point two deaths
per one hundred thousand. That's a drop of thirty seven
percent from last year. But it's three times higher than
the worst in Australia, or three times high in the
national average.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
And I guess to anybody listening as well, Harold, you know,
even though those stats have gone down, all those numbers
have gone down, it's cold comfort if you've lost a
family member to a road fatality, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Oh, it's horrific. And what's more, this whole concept of
hit and run. I think most of us saw that
seven point thirty report on the gentleman well man Jake Danby,
who was accused and I think found guilty of hitting
and killing a man, and the comments he made about
(02:35):
that poor man, and then the sort of the arrogance
he said he'd never go to jail because he was
a Danby, and then it transpired that he was related
to the Attorney General. I mean, this sounds like something
out of Tennessee. Yeah, it's not the sort of thing
you want to hear in Australia.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I mean it's something that people are being quite appalled
by when we look at those numbers as well, Harold
our first nations people over represented in those statistics.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Oh very much right across Australia though, right across Australia.
And it's a really troubling issue. It's sometimes very hard
to know what to do. We know a lot of
it's to do with alcohol and possibly drugs. You know,
that's that's a very big problem the I guess the
(03:29):
territory has a unique problem or a more than normal
problem there. But to think that you're three times the
national average, you're up there with places like Kenya and
you know some of these African countries with that deaktop
one hundred thousand. It's just appalling. And it's down for
nearly thirty six percent on last year. You can imagine
(03:51):
what it was. It was amongst the worst in the world. Now,
the good news for us, well for you, is that
we were instrument mental many years ago and getting more
than Territory to reduce its maximum speed to one hundred
and thirty. Still that's the only place in Australia where
you can do it. Every other state and Territory is
one hundred and ten. But it used to be unlimited.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Do you remember, Yeah, I do, I certainly do remember.
I know people were you know, when it changed. There
were some that didn't want it to change.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
But I don't know. Honestly, I don't know whether.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
It's made a big impact in terms of the number
of road debts we have, but I would hope that
it has, and I would think.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
That it has well.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
It has to make a difference in the mentality. You know,
that's the only place in the world where there was
unlimited speed on undivided roads with soft shoulders. It just
you just don't do it anywhere from the world. If
you're going to do these unlimited speeds, say on German
auder Barns, I mean, I think that's bad enough. But
(04:52):
they're very, very perfectly manicured roads with huge mediums and
all sorts of barriers. The fact that you could do
that out on an open road when there's cattle roaming
over the road and animals, it just was beyond belief.
And we did a lot of lobbying and we did
get that cut back, but that doesn't help. That's not
(05:14):
where most of the pedestrians and injuries are taking place.
That's on the inner city. One of the things we're
working on, and we're getting somewhere in some of the
states and territories is thirty k zones in areas of
high pedestrian activity. Now that might sound strange in the territory,
but if you go to Europe, London, Paris, Madrid, most
(05:35):
of the major capitals now are moving to thirty. All
the areas of high pedestrian activity are thirty and New
Zealand is moving to this because they found that in
cities particularly, it not only reduces trauma, but it dramatically
improves commerce and business because people prefer to go and
(05:56):
shop in areas where it's safe.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Hold in turn, you know, I'm sure you're familiar with it.
Baggett Road is one of our well, it is one
of our main sort of roads that a lot of
Territorians travel on every single day. It is unfortunately an
area where we have had a number of pedestrian strikes.
We've got a situation now where the Greens Member for
(06:19):
Nightcliff is calling for the Northern Territory government to implement
some changes to try and prevent those strikes. I caught
up with the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure earlier this
morning and he said that it is something that the
department's already looking into. They are looking at whether there
may actually be able to be some sort of motion
(06:41):
lighting if pedestrians are trying to get across the road
in the evenings and that kind of thing that would
light up the road I'm assuming so that drivers can
see anybody trying to cross. I mean, are things like
that good measures to put in place?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Do you think?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I think that sort of belongs in another century. Why
should pedestrians have to beg to cross a road? Why
are we the ones We're the largest road user group
and we're the most vulnerable and politicians always shove us
at the bottom of a food chain, Really and truly
number one, why do they always look into things and
never do anything. Don't look into it, do something, But
(07:24):
Why is the speed limits so high along there is
the fact that motorists can get to their destination in
thirty seconds earlier so important when the lives and limbs
of people who choose to walk so unimportant. Why don't
they have lots of bridges across there if they're not
going to provide safe places to cross. I mean, the
(07:46):
first thing to do is reduce the speed. Clearly, eighty
seems to be very dangerous there, and set even seventy.
If you've got evidence of high levels of trauma, then
you reduce this. It's obvious, you know in you I've
just come back from Europe. In most cases now in
Scandinavia they don't do much over eighty kilometers an hour
(08:10):
anymore on undivided roads because they find that if two
vehicles collided anything over that, there's no one survives. So
why aren't we looking at ideas like that? Why aren't
we putting the vulnerable road us as the cyclist and
the pedestrians first instead of always the last. And unfortunately
(08:31):
Northern Territory has no excuses to have a road toll
that's three times higher than the average none harold.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Some people listening this morning will be saying, at what point, though,
does personal responsibility come into play as well?
Speaker 2 (08:45):
And you know, crossing the road sort.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Of safely, going to that footbridge safely, or going to
you know where there are sort of signs up telling
you it's a safer spot to cross.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
What have you got to walk a mile for the
right to cross the This is nonsense. Personal responsibility what
a lot of nonsense, you know, really and truly pedestrians
have the right to cross a road without walking, you know,
a couple of kilometers to then come back again. It's
crazy we always say personal responsibility. What about the personal
(09:21):
responsibility of motorists to slow down? The motorists have caused
most of these crashes in your case, in the Northern Territory,
there have been so many hidden runs. And if the
courts are treating the death of a human being with
such utter contempt, you've really got to have a good
look at yourself. How can you possibly give someone community
(09:45):
service for hitting and leaving a human being to lie
in the gutter? And how what sort of images that
portraying to the rest of Australia, let alone in the world.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, look, you know, I agree you I think that
you know if someone is doing the wrong thing, then
they certainly need to feel.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
The full force of the law.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Particularly, I mean that coverage, what we've seen and heard
out of that is disgraceful. There's no other way to
put it.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Harold, we are going to have to wrap up. I reckon.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
You've really given people a bit of food for thought
this morning, so I appreciate you joining us on the
show any time.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Katie. Please, we've got to get this road toll down.
We've got to get all politicians. You never hear them
talking about it, do you. And they'll talk about domestic violence,
tilk ours come home, they'll talk about knives and guns,
but they very very rarely mentioned the road toll because
they don't think there's any votes. Let's please bring road
(10:46):
trauma up to the top of the food chain and
start talking about the rights of the most vulnerable.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Well, Harold Screwby, thank you so much for your time
this morning. Really appreciate us my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Katie, thank you,
Now we've also been discussing today and certainly caught up
with the Minister Bill Yan a little earlier today because
we know the Member for Nightcliff Cat mcnamaras, called on
the government to fix Baggott Road to prevent pedestrian strikes
and fatalities. So she started a petition well pushing for
an urgent safety review to be conducted looking at the
(00:22):
conditions for pedestrians and cyclists and is calling for better
infrastructure around bus stops, more lighting and a review of
speed limits along Baggott Road. Now, Bill Yan had said
that this is something that the Department is looking at.
But joining us on the line right now is the
Pedestrian Council of Australia's CEO, Harold Screwby. Good morning to you, Harold.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Are you yeah, really good? Great to have you on
the show. Harold.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
What are the stats Showers in regards to pedestrian fatalities
and strikes in the Northern Territory.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Look, the good news the Northern Territory is that your
road top has come down significantly this year over last year,
over the last twelve months. In fact, you're down for
the Northern Territory overall you're down fifty six percent. When
it comes to well, that's actually for pedestrians. You had
(01:19):
sixteen last year or the previous twelve months, it's down
to seven, which is back down to twenty twenty one figures.
That's very very good. You're overall the overall deaths in
the Northern Territory are down thirty five percent as well,
sixty two last twelve months. Forty Now, now the bad
(01:44):
data is that you are still fifteen point two deaths
per one hundred thousand. That's a drop of thirty seven
percent from last year. But it's three times higher than
the worst in Australia, or three times high in the
national average.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
And I guess to anybody listening as well, Harold, you know,
even though those stats have gone down, all those numbers
have gone down, it's cold comfort if you've lost a
family member to a road fatality, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Oh, it's horrific. And what's more, this whole concept of
hit and run. I think most of us saw that
seven point thirty report on the gentleman well man Jake Danby,
who was accused and I think found guilty of hitting
and killing a man, and the comments he made about
(02:35):
that poor man, and then the sort of the arrogance
he said he'd never go to jail because he was
a Danby, and then it transpired that he was related
to the Attorney General. I mean, this sounds like something
out of Tennessee. Yeah, it's not the sort of thing
you want to hear in Australia.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I mean it's something that people are being quite appalled
by when we look at those numbers as well, Harold
our first nations people over represented in those statistics.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Oh very much right across Australia though, right across Australia.
And it's a really troubling issue. It's sometimes very hard
to know what to do. We know a lot of
it's to do with alcohol and possibly drugs. You know,
that's that's a very big problem the I guess the
(03:29):
territory has a unique problem or a more than normal
problem there. But to think that you're three times the
national average, you're up there with places like Kenya and
you know some of these African countries with that deaktop
one hundred thousand. It's just appalling. And it's down for
nearly thirty six percent on last year. You can imagine
(03:51):
what it was. It was amongst the worst in the world. Now,
the good news for us, well for you, is that
we were instrument mental many years ago and getting more
than Territory to reduce its maximum speed to one hundred
and thirty. Still that's the only place in Australia where
you can do it. Every other state and Territory is
one hundred and ten. But it used to be unlimited.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Do you remember, Yeah, I do, I certainly do remember.
I know people were you know, when it changed. There
were some that didn't want it to change.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
But I don't know. Honestly, I don't know whether.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
It's made a big impact in terms of the number
of road debts we have, but I would hope that
it has, and I would think.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
That it has well.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
It has to make a difference in the mentality. You know,
that's the only place in the world where there was
unlimited speed on undivided roads with soft shoulders. It just
you just don't do it anywhere from the world. If
you're going to do these unlimited speeds, say on German
auder Barns, I mean, I think that's bad enough. But
(04:52):
they're very, very perfectly manicured roads with huge mediums and
all sorts of barriers. The fact that you could do
that out on an open road when there's cattle roaming
over the road and animals, it just was beyond belief.
And we did a lot of lobbying and we did
get that cut back, but that doesn't help. That's not
(05:14):
where most of the pedestrians and injuries are taking place.
That's on the inner city. One of the things we're
working on, and we're getting somewhere in some of the
states and territories is thirty k zones in areas of
high pedestrian activity. Now that might sound strange in the territory,
but if you go to Europe, London, Paris, Madrid, most
(05:35):
of the major capitals now are moving to thirty. All
the areas of high pedestrian activity are thirty and New
Zealand is moving to this because they found that in
cities particularly, it not only reduces trauma, but it dramatically
improves commerce and business because people prefer to go and
(05:56):
shop in areas where it's safe.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Hold in turn, you know, I'm sure you're familiar with it.
Baggett Road is one of our well, it is one
of our main sort of roads that a lot of
Territorians travel on every single day. It is unfortunately an
area where we have had a number of pedestrian strikes.
We've got a situation now where the Greens Member for
(06:19):
Nightcliff is calling for the Northern Territory government to implement
some changes to try and prevent those strikes. I caught
up with the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure earlier this
morning and he said that it is something that the
department's already looking into. They are looking at whether there
may actually be able to be some sort of motion
(06:41):
lighting if pedestrians are trying to get across the road
in the evenings and that kind of thing that would
light up the road I'm assuming so that drivers can
see anybody trying to cross. I mean, are things like
that good measures to put in place?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Do you think?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I think that sort of belongs in another century. Why
should pedestrians have to beg to cross a road? Why
are we the ones We're the largest road user group
and we're the most vulnerable and politicians always shove us
at the bottom of a food chain, Really and truly
number one, why do they always look into things and
never do anything. Don't look into it, do something, But
(07:24):
Why is the speed limits so high along there is
the fact that motorists can get to their destination in
thirty seconds earlier so important when the lives and limbs
of people who choose to walk so unimportant. Why don't
they have lots of bridges across there if they're not
going to provide safe places to cross. I mean, the
(07:46):
first thing to do is reduce the speed. Clearly, eighty
seems to be very dangerous there, and set even seventy.
If you've got evidence of high levels of trauma, then
you reduce this. It's obvious, you know in you I've
just come back from Europe. In most cases now in
Scandinavia they don't do much over eighty kilometers an hour
(08:10):
anymore on undivided roads because they find that if two
vehicles collided anything over that, there's no one survives. So
why aren't we looking at ideas like that? Why aren't
we putting the vulnerable road us as the cyclist and
the pedestrians first instead of always the last. And unfortunately
(08:31):
Northern Territory has no excuses to have a road toll
that's three times higher than the average none harold.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Some people listening this morning will be saying, at what point, though,
does personal responsibility come into play as well?
Speaker 2 (08:45):
And you know, crossing the road sort.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Of safely, going to that footbridge safely, or going to
you know where there are sort of signs up telling
you it's a safer spot to cross.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
What have you got to walk a mile for the
right to cross the This is nonsense. Personal responsibility what
a lot of nonsense, you know, really and truly pedestrians
have the right to cross a road without walking, you know,
a couple of kilometers to then come back again. It's
crazy we always say personal responsibility. What about the personal
(09:21):
responsibility of motorists to slow down? The motorists have caused
most of these crashes in your case, in the Northern Territory,
there have been so many hidden runs. And if the
courts are treating the death of a human being with
such utter contempt, you've really got to have a good
look at yourself. How can you possibly give someone community
(09:45):
service for hitting and leaving a human being to lie
in the gutter? And how what sort of images that
portraying to the rest of Australia, let alone in the world.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, look, you know, I agree you I think that
you know if someone is doing the wrong thing, then
they certainly need to feel.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
The full force of the law.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Particularly, I mean that coverage, what we've seen and heard
out of that is disgraceful. There's no other way to
put it.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Harold, we are going to have to wrap up. I reckon.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
You've really given people a bit of food for thought
this morning, so I appreciate you joining us on the
show any time.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Katie. Please, we've got to get this road toll down.
We've got to get all politicians. You never hear them
talking about it, do you. And they'll talk about domestic violence,
tilk ours come home, they'll talk about knives and guns,
but they very very rarely mentioned the road toll because
they don't think there's any votes. Let's please bring road
(10:46):
trauma up to the top of the food chain and
start talking about the rights of the most vulnerable.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Well, Harold Screwby, thank you so much for your time
this morning. Really appreciate us my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Katie, thank you,
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