'Fatigue isn’t a badge of honour': why December is so deadly on rural roads

The Land

December consistently stands out as one of the deadliest months on Australia’s rural roads, with long-distance travel, fatigue and end-of-year pressure pushing drivers to dangerous limits.  Hear what you can do to stay safe, and what needs to change to help make the roads safer for everyone.

Transcript

00:00It's December, one of the dangerous and most deadly times to be on the road in New South Wales.

00:05This time each year, transport for New South Wales records a spike in the number of accidents,

00:11injuries and fatalities on our roads across the state. This year already we've seen more than

00:17330 lives lost on our roads and more than 10,000 people injured. Now as we come to the holiday

00:24season, as harvest wraps up and our roads get busier than ever, the question is who's responsible?

00:30For preventing the loss of life, preventing injuries and keeping people safe throughout the season.

00:36Here on Cargo Road in the Central West you can see that there's some pretty serious road damage here

00:40and right in front of me folks are harvesting, loading up the B-doubles and there are plenty

00:44of cars and trucks heading back and forth between towns. Our roads are only getting busier and so

00:50I've set out to find out what can be done to make them safer for everyone and what drivers can do

00:55to help produce their risk this season. We really see fatigue as a critical problem. I mean it's

01:03it's right up there, we all know what it feels like when it's clouding our judgment, when it's making it

01:07difficult for us to make sound decisions and when those things translate to a road environment

01:12it's incredibly dangerous. We have a terrible habit and I don't think it's just agriculture but we have a

01:17terrible habit in agriculture of saying fatigue is my badge of honour. It's not, it's just reckless.

01:24It's like you wouldn't consider it a badge of honour to drive drunk so don't consider it a badge of honour

01:28to drive when you're exhausted. Are we carrying a swag? Are we doing little things like I would say

01:33to my kids, have you had breakfast? Have you had lunch? Have you had enough to drink? Have you

01:38rolled that swag out and got that those hours of sleep that you couldn't afford to drive home and get

01:44but you could at least make sure you got some half-decent rest? Rural roads just are a challenge. We have

01:50potholes and your wildlife and we couple that with often some areas have to deal with bushfires

01:55and heavy rains, less lighting than our city roads. There's just a whole culmination of factors which

02:02make them more challenging to navigate and a more risky driving environment. Be kind to our farmers on

02:07the road and be patient when you see them moving equipment around because remember that your beautiful

02:12Christmas lunch comes courtesy of the work that those farmers are doing so some compassion from everyone is helpful.

02:20you

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