Australia has just experienced its highest road toll in seven years. With increased traffic during the long weekend, the total number of deaths is expected to climb even higher. Advocates are calling for change in the way that crashes are discussed and reported on in the media.
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00:00 Joanne Duke was looking forward to the arrival of her first grandchild, but she never got
00:07 that chance. While Joanne was driving in Sydney's north, a man sped onto the wrong side of the
00:12 road, crashing into her. She died at the scene.
00:15 My world fell apart from that moment. I just didn't know what to do.
00:20 Mum, an extraordinary woman in so many ways, a ball of fun, a ball of energy. She's someone
00:26 that I miss greatly every single day.
00:29 The mother of three is one of almost 6,000 people who have been killed on Australian
00:33 roads over the past five years. The death toll dropped during the pandemic, but there's
00:38 now been a spike in fatalities. More than 1,200 people have been killed in crashes this
00:44 year, the highest number since 2016.
00:47 We don't really know what's caused that increase exactly, and it might take us a lot of research
00:52 and a number of years before we really know the true picture of that.
00:55 Road safety campaigners say random breath testing and increased levels of highway patrol
01:00 can make a difference.
01:01 We need to get back to having more visible police on the road, not relying so much on
01:06 the camera technology.
01:08 Advocates say the way Australians talk about road deaths needs to change. The Road Trauma
01:14 Support Group has launched new media guidelines, calling on people to stop using the term 'accident'
01:20 to describe a crash.
01:23 Crash doesn't assume innocence or guilt, whereas the term 'accident' is a description that
01:31 has an excuse bolted into it.
01:33 It takes the blame away from the offender. In people's minds it sugarcoats what actually
01:43 happened.
01:44 The group hopes to spur a broader societal shift where dangerous driving is treated as
01:49 a more serious crime.
01:50 [BLANK_AUDIO]