Think campaign launched in Australia

With the help of Australian Formula One Grand Prix driver Mark Webber, Australia’s motoring clubs launched the Think Before You Drive campaign in Melbourne on 29th March.
 
Launching the campaign, Webber reiterated its key road safety messages: always wear a seat belt, check your tyre condition, adjust your head restraint and ensure that children are safely restrained in a suitable child seat.

“More than one million people are killed every year on roads around the world – in Australia some five people die every day and more than 60 are severely injured as a result of road trauma.” He said. “Yet we as a public seem to dismiss these figures without even thinking about the human and social tragedy that it is. It is important to stress that every driver, even Formula One drivers, can make mistakes – every driver should be aware of their limitations and not take risks.”

Executive Director of the AAA, Lauchlan McIntosh said the Think Before You Drive campaign was an important part of the motoring clubs’ road safety project of safer drivers in safer cars on safer roads. The seat belt message is of particular importance in Australia where the lack of a seat belt features highly in crash statistics. In 80% of all fatal crashes in the Northern Territory in 2005, for example, drivers were not wearing seat belts.

“You can be the best driver in the world”, said McIntosh, “but if you and your passengers aren’t wearing their seat belt you are playing Russian Roulette every time you get in the car.”