Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with NT Traffic Police Sergeant Chris Thurgood Acting Sergeant Scott Atkins and AANT CEO Anthony Hill re new campaign Road Safety for Young Drivers

Transcript

Katie Woolf spoke with NT Traffic Police Sergeant Chris Thurgood Acting Sergeant Scott Atkins and AANT CEO Anthony Hill re new campaign Road Safety for Young Drivers · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf. Join the conversation with Katie Wolf.
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  Speaker 1: You are our eyes and ears in the Territory Mixed
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  Speaker 1: one oh four point nine.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I tell you what, it's a busy morning in
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  Speaker 2: here this morning. And joining us in the studio right
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  Speaker 2: now from AAANT the CEO, Anthony Hill, Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning, Katie.
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  Speaker 2: Great to have you in the studio. Now we've also
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  Speaker 2: got from the Northern Territory Police. Well, firstly we've got
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  Speaker 2: Scott Aikens, sergeant with the Territory Police, Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Let me just check that I've got your microphone on there, okay.
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  Speaker 2: And then we have also got Chris the Good Northern
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  Speaker 2: Territory Traffic Police sergeant. Good morning, Katy.
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  Speaker 1: How are you going?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, very good. Now I've got all of you in
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  Speaker 2: here this morning because we are talking road safety, and
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  Speaker 2: we very often talk road safety in this studio, but
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  Speaker 2: particularly for young drivers and some of the concerns that
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  Speaker 2: we're dealing with when it comes to our young people.
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  Speaker 2: Now I understand that there is going to be an
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  Speaker 2: initiative really kick off to try to educate our young
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  Speaker 2: peace and try to keep them safe on our roads.
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  Speaker 1: Isn't there, absolutely, Catie. So we have a major event
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  Speaker 1: coming up in May on the eleventh of May called
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  Speaker 1: Street Smart High. It's a road safety education event that
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  Speaker 1: aims to reduce the road toll through developing positive road
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  Speaker 1: safety knowledge, skills, attitude amongst the next generation of drivers
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  Speaker 1: and riders. So this event will there's three probably key
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  Speaker 1: areas that we're going to be addressing risk, resilience and
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  Speaker 1: also road safety education in this one day event. So
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  Speaker 1: the target audience for this event is year ten to
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  Speaker 1: twelve students and we've had just an unbelievable response from
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  Speaker 1: the schools on this, so we've got twelve hundred and
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  Speaker 1: ninety attending. It's going to be held at the Convention
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  Speaker 1: Center on May the eleventh. As I said, so yeah,
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  Speaker 1: really good response and I think it's going to be
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  Speaker 1: a successful program that is run into state in other
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  Speaker 1: jurisdictions in South Australia. It's been running for ten years
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  Speaker 1: and are bringing it to Darwin One.
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  Speaker 2: Has it ever happened in the territory before.
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  Speaker 1: No, it hasn't. No first time, first time and you know,
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  Speaker 1: we are very very grateful for the Northern Territory government
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  Speaker 1: and also Mac who have been heavy financial sponsors of
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  Speaker 1: this program. That's the Motor Accidents Compensation Commission to be
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  Speaker 1: able to bring this to the market. So it's I
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  Speaker 1: think it's going to be very impactful, and it'll be
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  Speaker 1: I think a really good step in part of the
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  Speaker 1: education and as I said in those three areas promoting
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  Speaker 1: what are the risks? And they're going to see some
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  Speaker 1: amazing things on the day.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I just think it's so incredibly important. Now,
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  Speaker 2: obviously Scott and Chris, you guys are out on the road,
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  Speaker 2: You're dealing with a lot of things when it comes
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  Speaker 2: to you know, to traffic and people breaking the rules
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  Speaker 2: sometimes on the roads. How important do you reckon it
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  Speaker 2: is that we educate young people and try to get
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  Speaker 2: you know, get that message across when they're pretty you know,
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  Speaker 2: those senior high school students, but they are still pretty young.
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  Speaker 2: How important is it to get that message through to
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  Speaker 2: them early.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's critically important. You know, Unfortunately we
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  Speaker 3: see too many of our young territorians involved in a
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  Speaker 3: serious accidents or fatal accidents. And to get this event
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  Speaker 3: going and to get the students to come and see this,
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  Speaker 3: I think they're going to get a lot out of it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I always go back to my own
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  Speaker 2: high school days and look, that's quite a while away,
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  Speaker 2: a long time ago now, but you know, I grew
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  Speaker 2: up in a little town. There's a lot of people
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  Speaker 2: in here that listen to the show No. In maun
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  Speaker 2: iSER and there was an you know, there was quite
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  Speaker 2: a number of young people who lost their lives on
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  Speaker 2: the road in maun iSER and the impact of that
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  Speaker 2: was not just a family and friends, but it is
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  Speaker 2: an entire community impact and it's something that you know,
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  Speaker 2: that reaches the whole town when, particularly when a young
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  Speaker 2: life is lost. And I think that so often when
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  Speaker 2: we are young, we feel like we're bulletproof and that
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  Speaker 2: we're not going to be impacted by anything, but the
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  Speaker 2: reality is we really can be.
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  Speaker 3: It is especially tragic. You know, a young person, you know,
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  Speaker 3: they got the whole life ahead of them to lease
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  Speaker 3: their the life on the road, and as you said,
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  Speaker 3: it's just a tragedy for everyone involved. It has to
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  Speaker 3: go to these incidents. And you know, once a pea
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  Speaker 3: plater within their first year of actually getting their PS,
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  Speaker 3: they're twenty to thirty times more likely to have a
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  Speaker 3: serious motor vehicle crash. Wow, So it increases that much
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  Speaker 3: once they first get their pe plays.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, do you reckon that that is? I guess
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  Speaker 2: if we knew why that was, you know, then I
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  Speaker 2: suppose we'd be solving a lot of issues. But is
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  Speaker 2: it an education thing.
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  Speaker 3: I definitely think it is an education thing.
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  Speaker 1: It's a complex issue. It really is a complex issue.
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  Speaker 1: I think there is there's a number of things that
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  Speaker 1: you know, probably a combination of countermeasures that needs to
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  Speaker 1: be just the licensing process I think, and training methods
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  Speaker 1: as well, and learning methods, enforcement education, and also communication
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  Speaker 1: and technology. You know, there're so that it is very complex,
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  Speaker 1: but you know it really it's everyone's responsibility. I think
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  Speaker 1: I'm out there and and honestly it's going to take
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  Speaker 1: for these actions that they require ongoing leadership from everyone
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  Speaker 1: in the community.
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  Speaker 2: On I mean, Scott, obviously you're out on the road
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  Speaker 2: quite often as well. Mate, How like, how prevalent do
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  Speaker 2: you think it is or that you know or how
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  Speaker 2: important is it that our young people really know about
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  Speaker 2: the impacts and the dangers on our roads.
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  Speaker 4: I think greatly as well. You know, young kids come
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  Speaker 4: out now to the nice new cars, drive a lot faster,
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  Speaker 4: than they ever used to and more technology and all
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  Speaker 4: the friends are in the car, so to cover all
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  Speaker 4: that about the risk that increased once you gravel your
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  Speaker 4: mates jump on the car for the night, in alcohol, distractions,
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  Speaker 4: distractions and speed and you know, the list goes on.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of factors there are. And look,
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  Speaker 2: I've watched some of those those videos, those vignettes that
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  Speaker 2: have been put together that are going to be shown
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  Speaker 2: to our young people at the event on the eleventh
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  Speaker 2: of May, and I tell you what, you know, some
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  Speaker 2: of the stuff that people have gone through through road
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  Speaker 2: crashes is utterly heartbreaking. The loss of life is utterly heartbreaking.
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  Speaker 2: But then you know, even even seeing some of those
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  Speaker 2: interviews with the likes of young Jacks who's on our
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  Speaker 2: sister station here on Hot one hundred, who's a young fella,
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  Speaker 2: you know, pointing out things that you've just spoken about.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you get in the car, you've got those distractions.
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  Speaker 2: There are all those types of things that we've got
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  Speaker 2: to be aware of and we've got to make young
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  Speaker 2: people aware of. But also that it's okay to say no,
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  Speaker 2: I'm getting out of the car. If you get in
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  Speaker 2: the car with somebody who's been drinking or who's doing
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  Speaker 2: the wrong thing.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I think that's some of the key messages Katie
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  Speaker 1: that we're looking to obviously get out of this event.
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  Speaker 1: They're going to witness also on the day a simulated
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  Speaker 1: car crash, so and it is life like that Christy
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  Speaker 1: is involved, and that is one of our we bring
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  Speaker 1: in in the convention center. There will be a crash
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  Speaker 1: car there. It tells a story about how it's all happened.
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  Speaker 1: There'll be actors, we have fire engines, we have the ambulance,
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  Speaker 1: we have the police arrive like a live scene. And
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  Speaker 1: Chris we were talking about it before he's done a
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  Speaker 1: rehearsal and he said, it's just amazing just how lifelike
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  Speaker 1: it is.
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  Speaker 3: When I was watching, it's like it's like, you know,
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  Speaker 3: so myself watching it, what I would do when I
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  Speaker 3: know to crash and exactly what the students will see.
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  Speaker 3: They'll see the police. I play a role as one
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  Speaker 3: of the crash investigators. So what they'll see towards the
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  Speaker 3: end is the role what will happen, So you'll see
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  Speaker 3: them being taken away, they'll be going to their watchhouse.
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  Speaker 3: They'll see the process. You know, they'll be breath tested,
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  Speaker 3: drug tested, they'll go through the charging process, and this
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  Speaker 3: is real life stuff and this is what you know
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  Speaker 3: you could expect if you know you're involved in one
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  Speaker 3: of these serious crashes.
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  Speaker 2: I just think it's so incredibly important to do. And look,
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  Speaker 2: I know that we probably don't have any high school
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  Speaker 2: students listening to the show this morning because hopefully they're
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  Speaker 2: actually school, but for their parents to actually hear as
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  Speaker 2: well as grandparents to hear that this kind of education
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  Speaker 2: is going on and that they are able to be
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  Speaker 2: involved on the eleventh of May, I think is so important.
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  Speaker 2: And it's also I think about us as parents sort
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  Speaker 2: of changing our mindset to some degree as well to
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  Speaker 2: try to make sure that our kids are educated and
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  Speaker 2: that they are the change makers that we need on
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  Speaker 2: our roads, that they're able to, you know, to maybe
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  Speaker 2: be a little bit more responsible than what we've been
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  Speaker 2: over the past twenty years or ten years and see
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  Speaker 2: some of that change on our road so that we
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  Speaker 2: can reduce the road toll.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 4: Man.
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  Speaker 1: I think there's what we have done as part of
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  Speaker 1: the program has done a survey, so we're doing a
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  Speaker 1: pre survey. Some of the results we've seen from that
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  Speaker 1: are amazing and we'll be sharing those, but just one
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  Speaker 1: of them. Forty percent believe that young people do not
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  Speaker 1: take roads safety seriously. So this is We've had a
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  Speaker 1: huge response to the survey and then we will also
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  Speaker 1: be doing post surveys just to see hopefully we get
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  Speaker 1: an attitude and all change from this event.
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  Speaker 2: Will be really key to catch up with you guys
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  Speaker 2: after the event as well to just hear how it's
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  Speaker 2: gone and and you know, hear how the young people
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  Speaker 2: have sort of taken it, I suppose and and perceived it.
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  Speaker 2: I think that, you know, we've got to they've got
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  Speaker 2: to have an idea of the way in which this
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  Speaker 2: impacts the whole community, and this is a great way
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  Speaker 2: of doing it.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, thank you all so much for joining us in
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  Speaker 2: the studio this morning. And as I say, it'd be
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  Speaker 2: really keen to find out how the event goes on
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  Speaker 2: the eleventh of May. NT Traffic Police Sergeant Chris Thurgood,
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  Speaker 2: thank you so much for your time. Scott Aiken, sergeant
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  Speaker 2: with NT Traffic Police as well, thank you for your time.
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  Speaker 2: And a a n T CEO Anthony Hill, thank you
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  Speaker 2: so much for joining us very much. Thank you and
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  Speaker 2: you are listening to Mix one oh four point nine's
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  Speaker 2: three sixty