A powerful installation featuring 811 standing sunflowers, each symbolising a life lost on rural and remote roads in 2023, has been featured in Alexandra Park today for Rural Road Safety Month.
The emotive display highlights the human cost of road trauma and underscores our individual responsibility in preventing it.
It’s an initiative by the Australian Road Safety Foundation (ARSF), with the organisation releasing new research which highlights an alarming trifecta of individual attitudes towards risk, consequence and how an overall lack of rural road safety resilience may be fuelling fatal and serious incidents.
In fact, close to 6 in 10 of Queenslanders admit to unsafe driving practices on country roads.
Up to 53% admitted to speeding on country roads, 20% acknowledged driving despite feeling fatigued, and 14% are guilty of using a mobile phone behind the wheel.
Founder and Chair of ARSF, Russell White, said these disheartening statistics around dangerous driver attitudes, behaviour and lack of road safety resilience underscore the critical need for enhanced safety measures as we enter Rural Road Safety Month.
“We are urging all Queensland residents to prioritise safety, especially during Rural Road Safety Month,” he said.
“By choosing to put safety first and undertaking simple actions, such as planning routes, taking rest breaks, and avoiding distractions, we can prevent death or serious injury on the road.
“That said, our research also unveiled encouraging news for our mission to enhance road safety in regional areas by confirming the positive impact campaigns such as Rural Road Safety Month have on behaviour and attitudes.”
In Queensland, 70% of the state’s road fatalities (193 deaths) were taken on regional roads, reaffirming the ARSF’s stance that rural road safety is a cause for state-wide concern, no matter where drivers may call home.
Now in its seventh year, Rural Road Safety Month is the Australian Road Safety Foundation’s national awareness campaign, held annually in September.
Joining today’s was Raina Collett, who tragically lost her father, Steve, and her best friend, Olivia, in separate road trauma incidents.
Road users looking to help sow the seeds of change are encouraged to share their personal commitment by visiting Rural Road Safety Month or participating in the virtual pledge via ARSF’s Instagram (@ausroadsafety) and Facebook (@fatalityfreefriday) channels.
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