Hard-hitting road safety campaign changed Australian social habits

In Melbourne, Australia, the social and cultural habits of adults have been changed forever because of a hard-hitting road safety campaign, Mr Geoff Cliffe, of the Victorian Police, told yesterday's conference on road safety.

"If you drink, then drive you're a bloody idiot", is probably the most famous of all Australian official "shock" advertisements aimed at cleaning up what the Victoria Police saw as a chronic problem of road safety nine years ago. But there were stronger advertisements. At a cost of $700,000 each, they depicted in a most graphic fashion children and adults being hit and dragged under cars, because the drivers were either not paying attention or had consumed alcohol.

The advertisements were screened on national television at prime time and, according to Mr Cliffe, the high-investment programme saw road fatalities reduced by 50 per cent in the first five years.

But it wasn't just advertisements. The project used a massive programme of education, community involvement, technical resources and commitment in its battle with what Mr Cliffe described as "attitude".

Concurring with Mr Cartan Finegan, of the National Safety Council, that road safety should be addressed by the wider community, as opposed to simply the police and the motorists, Mr Cliffe said the Australians had sought to involve all the `stakeholder agencies".

"It needed to be a whole of government integrated approach. We had to go to the government and say here is our plan, we need you to back it for five to nine years.

"We went to the local community and asked them where they wanted the spy cameras to go; we asked them what sort of environment did they want to live in and in 96 per cent of the cases they put the cameras in places which we would have chosen anyway. But it was their choice, they were the ones taking action on safety.

"Next, we were able to show drivers that we were not prepared to bluff. It soon became obvious that 60 per cent were being checked every month on average.

"People know they are going to be caught if they are speeding." The judicial system was also overhauled with new legislation to ensure that if a driver was detected for speeding, a fine would be out in the post in 10 days.

Different speeds resulted in a different fines, "the faster, the larger until in some cases you simply get a note through the post telling you where to surrender your licence", explained Mr Cliffe.

A system of demerits was also used, eventually leading to the removal of "the privilege" of driving.

In relation to alcohol abuse, the now famous "booze bus" was employed to analyse regularly and randomly the breath of drivers. Again bringing in all the stakeholder agencies, the hotels and bars were brought on board to supply free soft drinks to badgewearing drivers who would take it upon themselves to refrain from alcohol and drive their friends for the night.

"Again, the education in the schools, the advertising on the television and the real probability that you would be caught forced a change in attitude in adults."

Obviously the strategy worked. In 1989 the State of Victoria had 777 road deaths; by last year that figure was down to 371 and this year is expected to reach its lowest point since 1951.