Echuca police are asking people to be more mindful on the roads after six Campaspe Shire fatalities in 2023.
“It’s still country people dying on country roads,” Senior Sergeant Damian Keegan said.
“We’ve commenced this year already with two lives lost. Last year, we didn’t have our first lives lost until mid-March.”
Sen Sgt Keegan said most collisions resulting in serious injury were around intersections and were not due to road quality.
“We’re still seeing a high number of incidents or collisions where people have failed to give way or stop at roadway signs,” he said.
“Some drivers are unfamiliar with these areas, but we are seeing a lot of incidents where it’s just from complacency. Some people travel these rural roads regularly, believing there’s often not much traffic, and then they have an occasion where suddenly another car comes up.
“In most cases, it’s not the road surface conditions that are contributing to our lives lost and serious injuries. Inattentive driving, driving while fatigued, not wearing seat belts, and speeding are still our major contributors to life loss on the roads.”
Despite what people might assume, Sen Sgt Keegan said serious accidents mostly occurred during daylight hours.
“There is this misconception that these collisions are happening in the early hours of the morning and that there are all these other contributing factors,” he said.
“When we look at our data about lives lost, they mostly happened between 8am and 3pm.
“They are happening on days like today where we expect that people will see us or that we can see other drivers on the road. It all comes back to complacency and people not paying attention when behind the wheel.”
In 2023, there were 295 fatalities state-wide, which was an increase on the previous year, where there were 241.