Queensland Road Safety Week 2024: Drive Safe, Arrive Safe

Queensland Road Safety Week 2024 will take place from August 26 to 30. This annual event aims to unite communities, law enforcement, and road safety advocates to promote awareness about road safety and encourage proactive measures to enhance the safety of our roads.

The theme for this year, "Drive Safe, Arrive Safe," underscores the important role we all play in preventing accidents and saving lives. Throughout the week, a range of events, workshops, and campaigns will be held across Queensland focusing on key issues such as speeding, drink driving, seatbelt use, and the dangers of distracted driving.

Whether you are a driver, cyclist, pedestrian, or passenger, your actions can significantly impact the safety of Queensland's roads.

In 2023, there were 276 fatalities on Queensland’s roads, with many more injured. As of August 11 2024, total Queensland road fatalities are up 4.7% yearly (2023) and up 10.8% on the five-year average, a frightening trend.

Key road safety issues in Queensland

Many factors contribute to this staggering statistic. They include:

• Speeding: Accounting for 74 deaths and 409 serious injuries, speed is a leading cause of fatalities on Queensland roads. We’ve seen how devastating these injuries can be and the lifelong consequences. Read Matt & Dinyse’s story

• Driver distraction: Driving distracted accounts for at least 28 road deaths and 1,544 serious injuries each year. However, it’s likely that these statistics underestimate the number of road crashes caused or influenced by distractions. Drivers may not admit to being distracted at the time of the crash. Studies have found that using a mobile phone while driving can increase the risk of a serious crash by four times.

• Drink driving: Sadly, 58 people are killed and over 754 are seriously injured each year on Queensland roads due to drink driving, according to data from Queensland government’s StreetSmarts initiative. Alcohol impairs judgment, vision, coordination, and reflexes, elevating the risk of a crash.

• Driver fatigue: Driving while tired is a leading contributing factors to Queensland’s road toll, with an average of 34 people killed and 503 seriously injured annually. The actual figure might be higher since it’s often challenging to ascertain if fatigue played a role in a crash. Moreover, research indicates that driving while fatigued can impair a driver’s judgment as severely as driving over the legal alcohol limit.

• Seatbelts and restraints: Not wearing seatbelts or appropriate restraints kills 34 people and seriously injures 189 on Queensland’s roads every year on average. To help try and combat this a new penalty of $1209 and 4 demerit points was introduced from July 1, 2024, for drivers and passengers not wearing seatbelts.

• Drug driving: 57 people are killed and 265 are injured annually due to crashes involving drug driving. Like drink driving, drug driving impairs judgement, vision, coordination and reflexes – and is extremely dangerous.

Matt and Dinyse with their lawyer Omar.
Read the story of their road accident, and how Omar helped them, here

Promoting road safety awareness and preventing accidents

We see on a day-to-day basis that despite fines being imposed for engaging in dangerous driving behaviours, people continue to engage in these behaviours, resulting in accidents and injury to innocent members of the public, including other drivers, passengers, pedestrians and road users, like cyclists. The increased incidence of accidents resulting in fatalities is shocking. It causes immense damage not only to the family members and friends of the fatally injured person but also to members of the public, including innocent bystanders and first responders.

As personal injury lawyers, we help our clients access compensation for injuries sustained in accidents through no fault of their own. It's a sad truth that monetary compensation can never fully restore what's been lost for someone who has experienced a serious injury. It's even more heartbreaking when assisting someone who has lost a loved one.

During Queensland Road Safety Week 2024, we hope all road users will pause to think about the risks associated with dangerous driving behaviours and the impact these risks can have on themselves and others. We hope that the increased awareness will cause people to reconsider the role they can play in preventing accidents and ensuring that all road users arrive safely at their destination.

Queensland operates a "common law" scheme. This fault-based scheme aims to compensate people injured on the roads through no fault of their own. We assist our clients in lodging claims and navigating the scheme to ensure they can maximise their benefits and entitlements, including entitlements for financial loss and treatment needs.

If you have been injured in an accident or you know someone who has, we encourage you to contact Maurice Blackburn for advice. The initial consultation is free and without obligation.