Experts call for change as SA headed for worst road toll in a decade
The road toll in South Australia could be the worst in a decade if the current trajectory continues. 88 people have died on the road in SA so far this year which is already significantly higher than last year's toll.
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00:00 Sean Tosold's sister was killed in a car crash 25 years ago, but to him it still feels like
00:07 yesterday.
00:09 People were helping her on the side of the road, covering her up with blankets and stuff
00:13 like that and yeah, it slowly started to filter in that it was her.
00:18 Emma Tosold was a passenger travelling with an inexperienced driver on South Australia's
00:23 Ayr Peninsula.
00:24 The wet roads were a little bit too much for the young girl and she went off the road and
00:30 Emma hit the tree, had a light side on and was killed instantly.
00:35 She was one of 168 people killed on SA roads in 1998.
00:40 More than two decades on, the number of people dying on SA roads is again surging, which
00:45 has police concerned.
00:47 Speeding is definitely a causal factor that has increased.
00:52 It's contributing well over 30% to fatal collisions.
00:57 Anna Gallimore's job is to investigate those collisions.
01:00 She says there's often a common factor.
01:03 Quite possibly complacency.
01:06 Complacency for me might come down to speed that somebody's driving at.
01:10 It might come down to the drinks that they've consumed.
01:13 The state's peak motoring body, the RAA, has also raised concerns about the condition of
01:18 South Australia's road network.
01:20 It says maintenance funding should be a priority for governments to help reduce road trauma.
01:25 The state government allocated almost $100 million in its most recent budget towards
01:30 road safety.
01:31 Experts say there's a need to look at the bigger picture.
01:34 The reality is over the next 10 years we're set to kill about 1,000 people in South Australia
01:39 alone.
01:40 So what we're actually doing is set to harm future generations and what we need is a long-term
01:45 strategic approach to fix the system as a whole.
01:48 To those directly impacted, the ramifications continue.
01:52 Just all these little things that she's missed out on.
01:56 To this day you just want her here just to go through.
01:59 She missed out on my daughter's birth, now my grandson is here and yeah, she's just missed
02:04 out on so much.
02:06 Grief that never goes away.
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