Commencing midnight Friday 9 August, a new high impact traffic enforcement road safety operation will commence. This will be called 'Operation High Impact F5' and it will have a dedicated focus on targeting all of the Fatal 5 offences of drink and drug driving, speeding, distraction, seatbelts and dangerous road users.
Between 2016 and 2018 calendar years 266 lives have been lost on South Australian roads.
Further to that, 2015 people have suffered serious injuries as a result of road crashes on our state's roads. Since 1 January 2019, there have been 73 people killed on our roads compared to 43 at the same time last year.
SAPOL Commissioner Grant Stevens is leading the launch of this operation as he sees that it is absolutely critical that people who use the roads in South Australia take responsibility for their driving behaviour.
"Recently I committed SAPOL to undertaking a high impact, highly visible and highly intensive traffic enforcement operation across the state. In this operation we are going to focus on all of the Fatal 5 because when motorists are involved in one or more of the Fatal 5 it can kill them or someone else," he said.
Commissioner Stevens said, "We need to change driver and road user behaviour. With 73 people killed so far on our roads this year - that is 30 more people who have been killed on our roads compared to 43 at the same time last year.
That is an additional 30 families who are suffering as a result of these deaths. That is 30 more incidents that emergency responders have had to attend and advise families of these deaths. This is simply unacceptable."
As of today - this highly intensive traffic enforcement operation will run for the next four weeks and conclude on Thursday 5 September.
The main purpose of this enforcement operation is to reinforce the message that any person using South Australian roads must be totally accountable and responsible for their behaviour when doing so. Taking unnecessary risks or making bad decisions can have lifelong devastating consequences.
This operation will include large scale random breath testing; random roadside drug testing; and other highly visible policing enforcement initiatives.
"Put bluntly - not wearing a seat belt – KILLS; speeding – KILLS; distraction – like using a mobile telephone whilst driving – KILLS; choosing to drink or drug drive – KILLS; and driving dangerously or like an idiot – KILLS.
We simply cannot keep going the way we have. We all need to confront the realities that 30 more people have been KILLED on our roads and that needs to stop now," Commissioner Stevens said.
SAPOL has also launched a series of new hard hitting and confronting posters which will be displayed on SAPOL's webpage and social media sites. They are a stark reminder of the realities; and or consequences, of people who should ignore the risks of committing an offence against one or more of the Fatal 5.
From today the strong message from the South Australia Police is to not drink and/or drug drive, do not speed, put your seatbelt on while driving, put the phone away and do not get distracted by other things while driving and simply drive to the conditions and drive safely.
The Fatal 5 kills – take responsibility on our roads.
Further information on the Fatal Five can be found on the Police website:https://www.police.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/786785/Fatal-Five-fact-sheet-2019.pdf
For further information on road safety, as well as useful links you can access, visit:https://www.police.sa.gov.au/your-safety/road-safety
Five pieces of tailored Fatal 5 content for Operation High Impact are digitally available via SAPOL social media sites.
