As at 13 April, South Australia has 43 lives lost this year on the roads compared to 21 this time last year. This is the worst start to lives lost on SA roads in over 10 years. This number is off the back of last year where 71 lives were lost which is the lowest recorded in the history of lives lost since statistics have been stored.
Whilst a motor vehicle crash can occur anywhere, we have seen a number of these crashes which have resulted in life altering injuries or worse fatal consequences occur in the regional areas.
Since January 2022, we have seen an increase of 13.5% in Search and Rescue tasking’s in those areas. This is due to people not preparing appropriately and not planning trips to these areas appropriately.
SA Police have allocated resources for over 1000 hours in these searches and this comes at a considerable cost for what can ordinarily be avoided. The police aircraft has been deployed 46 times over this period as well.
In this segment, we hear from Senior Sergeant Brian Kitto, Highway Patrol Co-ordinator with Traffic Services Branch and Senior Sergeant Angus McFarlane, Operations Manager Aircraft Services on all things road safety.
SA Police have launched two new brochures on holiday/road safety and remote travel safety, and ask that people “Plan, Prepare and Prevent” before they travel, and take the tips that are provided in these brochures into account when planning a holiday to these regions.