Watch the interview with Police Inspector Paul Ready VIDEO
Everyday, road crashes destroy lives, families, and impacts on Queensland communities.
Monday, August 26, to Friday, August 30 it is officially Queensland Road Safety Week 2019.
We had a chat with Inspector Paul Ready from Morton District Police, where he explained why this initiative is so important for the community to embrace.
“You’ll see areas where people have laid flowers, put crosses on the side of the road to indicate that something tragic has happened at that location and, I guess, people slow down to look at that,” Inspector Ready said in the video above.
“Maybe they reflect for a fraction of a second, but we would ask them to reflect for their whole driving life, to treat the car as a place of safety safety and drive safely.”
According to Driver Knowledge Test (DKT), a single one-car crash can easily affect tens of thousands of people and cause millions of dollars worth of losses.
Queensland Police areas of focus over the week:
Monday, Seatbelts: Click, clack front and back. Seatbelts save lives.
Tuesday, Speeding: Kill your speed, don’t kill others. Leave sooner, drive slower, live longer.
Wednesday, Fatigue: Drowsy is deadly. You snooze you loose, don’t drive drowsy.
Thursday, Distraction: One text or one call could wreck it all. Drive alert and arrive alive.
Friday, Drink and drug driving: Drive sober or get pulled over. Driver Under the Influence (DUI) doesn’t just mean alcohol.
Listen to the interview with Police Inspector Paul Ready PODCAST
Read the interview with Police Inspector Paul Ready TRANSCRIPT
McCarthy-Wood: Every day road crashes destroy lives, families and impact Queensland communities. Monday, August the 26th to Friday, August the 30th it is officially Queensland Road Safety Week 2019. We had a chat with Insp Paul Ready from Moreton District Police where he explained why this initiative is so important for the community to embrace.
Insp Paul Ready: … roads.
It’s all about looking and getting people aware and understanding the fatal parts with speed, drink and drug driving, any distractions or inattention offences. Obviously, there’s also the seatbelts and fatigue that are thrown in there. It’s about making people aware of the dangers that can occur on the road. Last year we had some 245 fatalities across Queensland. That’s affected a lot of people and a lot of people’s lives, not only those who had loved ones that were lost, but we have emergency services personnel, the Queensland Ambulance, Queensland Fire and Rescue and the Queensland Police Services. It has a big toll on them, as well, so this week is all about not only enforcing those that may be doing the wrong things, but it’s also about educating people on how to look at the road and how to use the road better.
McCarthy-Wood: Let’s first chat about the enforcement. What are you doing differently this week in relation to enforcement?
Insp Paul Ready: Enforcement, every day will have its own theme. Today might be speed, tomorrow might be drink driving, drug driving. There might be a day for those inattentions and those distractions where people are using their mobile phones or they’re just not paying attention, and there’s also seatbelts thrown in there, as well. Every day has a different theme and we’ll have officers out on the road every day making sure people not only are aware but they’re doing the right thing.
McCarthy-Wood: Insp Ready, that’s the enforcement side of it. What about the community? What are you asking of them over this week?
Insp Paul Ready: We’d like to see the community make every day Road Safety Day. The less number of fatalities we have on the road, the better it is for the people of Queensland. As I said, there’s a great toll that comes with those, not only for the families of the ones that are lost, but for our emergency services personnel.
McCarthy-Wood: You talk with your fellow officers, particularly those ones that are in the road traffic branch that are out there. What’s some of the feedback that you get when there is a situation where people have been injured or there’s been fatalities and that? How does that affect them? Maybe if you can reflect on some of the conversations you’ve actually had with them.
Insp Paul Ready: Because we’ve got the main highway here, we’ve got the D’Aguilar Highway, some of our people attend some really horrific accidents and these are accidents that can be avoided. It’s all about driving to the conditions, making sure you get there. Don’t leave it until the last minute. Plan your trip, make sure that you get there safely, and that’s what it’s all about. Talking to our officers, they see some really bad stuff and we’ve got to continue to support them through what those things… They come to work the next day and they carry that with them. There’s stuff that they see that can’t be unseen and our job is to support them through that.
McCarthy-Wood: When there are fatalities in a community such as the Moreton Region, particularly the Police District, there’s a fatality, how does that affect the community? When you’re out in that community, how do you see those flow on effects to others that may not even be family members, but they become touched by such a fatality?
Insp Paul Ready: You will see it throughout the Moreton District. You’ll see areas where people have laid flowers, put crosses on the side of the road to indicate that something tragic has happened at that location and, I guess, people slow down to look at that. Maybe they reflect for a fraction of a second, but we would ask them to reflect for their whole driving life, to treat the car as a place of safety and drive safely.
McCarthy-Wood: Insp Ready, behind you you’ve got a range of emergency services including the Coast Guard and the SES. How important, first and foremost, is a relationship between all of those emergency services, and what work is done on an ongoing basis to make sure that when a road traffic incident happens that the emergency services all turn up and are well coordinated?
Insp Paul Ready: We get together quite often and we talk about the issues that affect us all. As you’ll see behind me, we do have the volunteer Coast Guard, we have the SES, who are very important to us as volunteers. We’re the paid members of the emergency services, so the Queensland Fire and Rescue, the Queensland Ambulance, Queensland Police, we have a very good rapport and we watch each other’s backs so, when incidences like this occur, it’s not only about supporting your own people, it’s supporting the whole of the emergency services and those volunteers that come along to help us do our jobs.
McCarthy-Wood: We’ve talked in great detail about this week being Road Safety Week for Queensland. What about the ongoing effort for this year getting the road toll down?
Insp Paul Ready: That’s what this week is about. It’s about making sure people are educated, making sure people are aware about how to drive to the conditions. As I said before, it’s about making not just this week Road Safety Week, but every day Road Safely Day so that they get home to their loved ones and there is no more fatalities on the road. So, I would urge people to just take that time to really think about what they’re doing when they’re driving, to be concentrating on their driving. Leave the phone in the glove box, in the centre console. Just concentrate on what’s ahead of you and how you are driving on that road.