TRANSCRIPT: INTERVIEW WITH SALLY BRYANT, ABC RIVERINA, 26 MAY 2023
Subjects: Road safety
E&OE
STARTS 9.48AM
SALLY BRYANT
And it’s 12 minutes away from 10. Well, I happened to glance at my emails earlier this morning and I noted the member, our local Member, Michael McCormack, has put out a media release about road safety, about Fatality Free Friday, and I thought we should squeeze in a chat with you, Mr. McCormack, before we leave for the day.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Yes, good morning, Sally, and it is a busy day. We’ve just heard all about those fantastic plays, of course it is National Sorry Day. It’s also Fatality Free Friday and it’s a day that began 17 years ago. Russell White, who is from the Australian Road Safety Foundation – for just one day, just one day of the year – of course we’d like every day to be fatality free but he has promoted this to try to get all of our roads fatality free right across the nation.
SALLY BRYANT
Mr McCormack we’re going through a period of time where, am I right in saying, we’ve seen a rather worrying uptick in serious accidents on the roads?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Sadly, yes, Sally, and only overnight we saw a fellow airlifted to Canberra Hospital from Howlong, a crash there, a collision between Hume and Larmer streets and he’s in a critical condition and, of course, our roads have got a lot of potholes in them. People need to drive to the conditions and they need to at all times, of course, put a seatbelt on, don’t drink and drive and don’t use their mobiles. That’s a huge no-no. And so many people are doing it these days and so many people are going to get caught because if you use your mobile to text or take a call whilst you are driving, there are so many cameras about, as there should be, and people will get caught.
SALLY BRYANT
The other day I was in Griffith and I got a driving instructor to check my driving and he gave me some really useful tips. He said you’re not too bad but, he said, “You could improve here, here, here and here.” Do you think we could all use a bit of a reminder that maybe we’re not the most perfect drivers on Earth?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Oh, indeed, and people should take note of even young people who’ve just actually gotten their Ps and have a chat to them because they have got all the latest tips; looking over your shoulder, looking in the rear vision mirror, using your side mirrors, doing all those sorts of things.
These days we all think we can drive and many of us have been, of course, decades on the road. But we tend to be a little bit complacent, sometimes, and we think we know everything and, of course, we don’t. So it’s not a bad reminder and this is what Fatality Free Friday is doing. It’s just a refresher check, a reminder to take precautions to do everything that people should do when they’re behind the wheel. And I always say, too, when I talk to 18-year-olds or school groups or the like, if you’re a passenger in a car and somebody behind the wheel is doing the wrong thing, tell them to slow down. Tell them to do the right thing. It doesn’t take much but it’s just a reminder to those drivers, particularly young drivers, to do the right thing when they are behind the wheel on the road and look after not only people in their vehicles but other road users as well.
SALLY BRYANT
Mr McCormack thanks so much for taking the time to speak to me this morning.
Michael McCormack is the local Member and a really, really valuable reminder of how important it is to take road safety seriously.
It’s eight minutes away from 10.
Ends 9.52AM