Take the safety lead, urge police

By KATH GANNAWAY
HEALESVILLE is one of five Yarra Ranges towns with a dramatic rise in serious crashes over the past year.
Statistics showing a rise in serious injury collisions in the Healesville, Lilydale, Mooroolbark, Belgrave and Healesville areas were revealed last week as the shire launched its Take the Lead, Reduce Your Speed campaign.
The campaign was launched by Yarra Ranges mayor David Hodgett in conjunction with police last Wednesday.
The latest road crash statistics show a 17.2 per cent increase in serious injuries, 17.1 per cent in other injuries and an 18 per cent rise in crashes with no injuries in the shire over the past year.
There have been eight fatal crashes on the shire’s roads this year.
Cr Hodgett said speed had been identified as a major factor in crashes, with drinkdriving the secondmost significant factor.
Healesville police boss Sergeant Tony Van Gorp welcomed the campaign and placed much of the responsibility for speeding on commuters.
“It tends to be an issue with people who are overfamiliar with the highway commuting early in the morning and returning at night,” he said.
He said “I didn’t realise” and “I’m running late” were the most common – but not acceptable – excuses.
The statistics came as no surprise to officer in charge of the Yarra Ranges Traffic Management Unit Sergeant John Morgan.
He said a threeday operation focusing on speeding over the weekend prior to the launch picked up 178 people for speeding.
“That was out of a total of 251 offences and we’re talking just three (police) cars on the road. It’s quite ridiculous,” he said.
That campaign covered the Belgrave, Lilydale, Warburton and Healesville areas with police targeting each area for four hours at a time.
Sgt Morgan said he and his members took a hard line on speeding and while there were notable exceptions of extremely high speeds, a lot of speeding came down to driver complacency.
He also said the “I just didn’t realise” excuse was the one most people gave, and conceded he tended to believe it – most of the time.
“I think people just don’t seem to concentrate, but what they don’t realise is that potentially they have a onetonne weapon in their hands hurling down the street.
“We had one case where the driver was doing 136 in a 50 kilometre zone in Colby Drive in Belgrave, and going back to April, two 20 year olds doing 177 through Coldstream.
“It’s obvious that whatever reason they give is not going to be acceptable, but when someone is doing 75 (kph) in a 50 (zone), yes, I tend to believe they didn’t realise.
“People can become very complacent but they have to realise that a licence is a privilege and a responsibility, not a right, and we can take that privilege away,” Sgt Morgan said. “We take a hard line because we see the result of speeding. People just don’t realise what happens when they’re involved in an accident.
“It’s heartbreaking – especially when they’re young.”
The Take the Lead, Reduce Your Speed campaign is one of several Shire of Yarra Ranges road safety programs.