Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / AANT CEO Bron Stephens says reducing road trauma and phone use while driving is the focus this Road Safety Week

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AANT CEO Bron Stephens says reducing road trauma and phone use while driving is the focus this Road Safety Week · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that it is National Road Safety Week and
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the territory unfortunately not off to a great start with
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: a pedestrian struck by a car in Stuart Park overnight
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: as we'd heard about in local news with Crystal Gordon,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: but joining me in the studio to explain what is
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: planned for the week. It is the ant CEO, Bron Stevens.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Braun.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: How are you going? Yeah, really good? Great have you
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: in the studio, Thanks so much for your time, Braun.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Road Safety Week It kicked off well yesterday or Sunday
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: the fourteenth, and runs until the twenty first of May.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: What is planned So it's a week where we're really
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: asking people to get into conversations about it. We're going
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: to have a lot of social media going on. We're
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: going to light up our store front a couple of
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: nights with some yellow just to remind people what's happening.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: And we're really asking people to kick off that conversation
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: to make sure that we're driving some other survive.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: It is something that's so incredibly important and I think
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: every year we see the road told in the Northern Territory,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: we see the loss of life and it's something that
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: impacts not just not just the person who's loss, but
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the whole community really, And that's the thing about road trauma.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: It absolutely is. And in the territory, we know that
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  Speaker 2: there's a huge number of people affected by every road
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  Speaker 2: death because we are such a small community. It's two
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: degrees of separation up here, So if someone's injured, we
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: know that someone who loves them has been deeply affected.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're spot on and on average. I mean, one
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: of the terrifying stats is that forty people are killed
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  Speaker 1: every year and around four hundred and eighty people are
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  Speaker 1: seriously injured on territory roads. And I think that that's
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: sometimes a statistic or a number that we sort of
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: forget about that. Yeah, we have the terrible, tragic loss
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  Speaker 1: of life, but we also have people whose lives can
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: change forever based on injury.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's significant injuries that we're talking about in there.
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  Speaker 2: You know, the rest of their lives are impacted by
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  Speaker 2: this one moment and one poor decision of picking up
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  Speaker 2: their phone, speeding, doing something on the roads just has
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: this on flowing effect for a long long time.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it truly does. So tell me what is aiint
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  Speaker 1: doing this week. You touched on lighting up the shop
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: front and a few things like that, but what else
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  Speaker 1: can we expect?
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  Speaker 2: So if you jump on our socials, we'll have lots
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  Speaker 2: of educational articles across there. Our website, we've put up
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: a great article about Road Safety Week. We are focusing
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: in on the conversation about removing distractions, making sure that
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: we're not putting other people at risk by speeding, making
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  Speaker 2: sure we're not driving well tired or under the influence
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  Speaker 2: of drugs and alcohol, and protecting those who are in
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  Speaker 2: harm's way on the road. So our police officers are
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: fiery is our road workers and our big call out
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: this week and today is Road Safety for Young People Day. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: that's the theme. Our big call out is. You know,
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  Speaker 2: the young and young at hard are heading off to
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  Speaker 2: base in the grass this Saturday, and our ask is
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  Speaker 2: to really think about how you're getting home from that.
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  Speaker 2: Make a backup plan and a backup plan for your
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  Speaker 2: backup plan to make sure that you're not on the
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: roads and getting home safely.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is such an incredibly important thing to do.
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  Speaker 1: And I never mind being an uber driver for my children,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: they're not quite at that age yet that they're going
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: to base in the grass. But you think you'd rather
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: as a parent, you would rather get that phone call Mum,
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  Speaker 1: can you come and pick me up than something terrible
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: to happen.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and now's the time to have that conversation with
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: your kids. You know, make sure that it's safe for
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: them to call you if something goes wrong. You don't
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: want them getting in the roads in someone else's car
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: when they shouldn't be. You don't want them trying to
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: walk home late at night when they're drunk. Make sure
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: that they're getting home safely.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, Bron, just on. I mean, it's not just
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: young people, it's people of all ages. But when you
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: talk about those distractions, how big an issue is people
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: sort of getting on their phone or checking their phones
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: when they're in their vehicles. Like you see it when
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: you're in your car. You see people looking down or
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: you know, checking on their phones. It does seem to
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  Speaker 1: be quite a concern.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: It is a really significant concern for us in the
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: road safety space, and it's a growing issue. It's something
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: that we need to look at across the whole of
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  Speaker 2: the Northern Territory. And I know that there's work and
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: discussions happening about how we improve monitoring through the government
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: and policing systems, and we're very much looking forward to
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: getting into those conversations more as well, because we've got
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: to understand exactly what's happening and start to tackle them.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and they are really important conversations to have. Well, Bron,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: it's been lovely to have you in the studio this morning,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: obviously Road Safety Week well and truly underweight. Thank you
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: so very much for your time this morning.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you,