ONCE again in the pages of The Daily Advertiser, we are reading about the horrific story of a family who have lost their child in a road accident.
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These articles come up far too often to mention but what makes the story of lovable Tumut local Brett Casey even more tragic is the fact his family has already been forced to bury a son after an accident 12 years ago.
Two boys, two road toll statistics. It’s enough to bring a tear to any parent’s eye.
Brett was killed late on Saturday afternoon as he rode his beloved motorcycle through his hometown.
A 63-year-old man, who failed a roadside breath test after the accident, will face Tumut Local Court next month over the death.
One split second changed the life forever of not only Brett’s family, but also the driver and his family, who will undoubtedly also be grieving this devastating turn of events.
It seems the drink-driving message gets diluted as it travels across the Blue Mountains.
Statistics show in country areas of NSW, there are more than twice as many fatal drink-driving crashes than in metropolitan areas. In fact, 73 per cent of all the state’s fatal drink-drive accidents take place in the bush.
And while headline-grabbing fatals are what make the news, for every person killed on Australian roads another 11 lie injured in our nation’s emergency departments.
In the bush, perhaps the lack of an “option B” for drinkers is to blame. Taxis can either be either rare or non-existent in these smaller country towns, while the local drinking establishments are quite often the centre of social activity.
Perhaps it’s the blasé factor – if you’ve driven with a few drinks under your belt on multiple occasions and haven’t seen the boys in blue and their flashing lights, your brain starts believing what you are doing isn’t hurting anyone. Until one day it does.
Now, with more drivers on our roads also being detected behind the wheel with drugs in their system, going out for an afternoon drive almost feels like playing Russian roulette.
No matter what we do, fatalities will continue to happen and families will continue to mourn their loved ones at crosses on the side of roads.
But we, as drivers, must make a pledge to ourselves: We will not drive if we’re over 0.05. It’s the best way to honour a lovable larrikin like Brett Casey.
