General News
8 December, 2022
Road safety campaign starts
Victoria Police and Crime Stoppers have joined forces to target reckless and careless driving, calling on members of the public to submit their footage in a bid to reduce road trauma. The new campaign, You Never Know Who’s Watching, uses...
Victoria Police and Crime Stoppers have joined forces to target reckless and careless driving, calling on members of the public to submit their footage in a bid to reduce road trauma.
The new campaign, You Never Know Who’s Watching, uses de-identified footage of drivers behaving badly on Victorian roads and encourages motorists to submit their own footage of dangerous driving to Crime Stoppers.
The campaign comes as a response to the state’s road toll which currently sits at 233 deaths, 11 percent higher than the number of lives lost last year and above the state’s five year average.
It’s hoped more dangerous drivers will be prosecuted as a result of the campaign and Central Goldfields Highway Patrol Sergeant Brad Hall said it will help hold drivers accountable.
“Unfortunately we experience poor driving on all roads, whether it’s Central Goldfields or anywhere else in Victoria, there’s always someone who’s prepared to drive badly or to not drive to the conditions,” he said.
“That’s where this initiative comes in, we can’t be everywhere and what this does is it enables the community to work with us to hold people accountable for their driving.
“This campaign really expands our capability to be able to better hold drivers to account.”
Sgt Hall said too many drivers believe they won’t get caught or won’t be involved in serious collisions, something he says needs to change.
“It’s an issue because there’s that human nature or thought that ‘it won’t be me’ and if you’re out in the middle of nowhere, you think the chances of being detected by police doing something wrong is probably pretty low,” he said.
“When we’ve got the community working with us to expand our reach, then the chances of you being prosecuted for poor driving is increased and therefore, that hopefully leads to people making better decisions.
“That mindset is certainly one of the factors in road trauma and you hear time and time again that you never see a police car when you need one.
“Expanding that thinking is that anybody who’s got dashcam and is prepared to report dangerous driving to Crime Stoppers, effectively becomes that pseudo-enforcement.”
The five year average for deaths on Victorian roads sits at 214, with the number of lives lost this year surpassing this figure already and including the death of local resident Ian Hoyland, who sadly died in a two-vehicle collision just outside Talbot on August 11.
Sgt Hall said the results of dangerous or reckless driving can be heartbreaking and urged drivers to think of other road users.
“The old saying that country people die on country roads is unfortunately true,” he said.
“The gentleman who lost his life that day was a local and was going about his business and unfortunately, didn’t make it home.”
Sgt Hall reminded the community that while video evidence of unsafe driving was preferred, residents should not put themselves at risk to obtain it.
“The reporting mechanism is around the community supplying us with evidence and that needs to be taken in a safe manner — don’t put yourself in harms way to obtain that evidence,” he said.
“Video evidence is the best for us to follow up after the fact, but you can’t put yourself in harms way to obtain that.”
To report a crime, visit crimestoppersvic.com.au.