The Editorial
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It has been a fortnight of sobering reminders of the enormous responsibility that comes with the privilege of being behind the wheel.
One man dead, another man taken to hospital, last week alone. Two different crashes, on the same stretch of the Sturt Highway between Wagga and the Hume.
Both late at night. Both involving trucks.
Both the week after a man died in a high-speed collision with another car on Coolamon Road early one Tuesday morning.
And the latest was just days after two men were killed when their truck collided with a freight train.
In other news
Investigations into how each of those crashes came to be are still in the hands of police, but even without knowing the circumstances surrounding them it's enough for one to pause as you put the keys in the ignition next time you get in the car.
Or so you would think.
Because still, in the same week, a man was caught tearing through Wagga's suburban streets at 135 km/h.
One hundred and thirty-five kilometres an hour. It's beyond belief.
That's more than you're allowed to do on an open road just about anywhere in the state.
More than twice as fast as anyone needs to be going in a residential area. Most streets in town are zoned at 50km/h.
Almost as fast as the street racers who are now in jail were going before one of them hit the car Craig Smith was driving, killing him instantly, on Coleman Street just three-and-a-half years ago.
There has been nine lives lost to the wider Riverina roads since the first day of 2021. Already 53 people have died on NSW roads this year. It might be three down on the same time last year but still, it's too many.
We all have a duty when we get behind the wheel. To ourselves, to our families, to each other.
That nothing more went wrong on Thursday and no one was hurt as that driver hurtled down the streets of Turvey Park is a whole other miracle.
He won't be allowed back on the road for six months. That should be plenty of thinking time.
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