Two hundred and ninety-nine: that is how many people died on Queensland roads last year.
Sixty more souls were lost between January 1 and the start of this month.
By anyone’s measure, that is a lot of death.
Hearts are breaking all over the state.
When compared to the 638 people who died on the state’s roads in 1973, we should feel good – but that is because in 50 years, we have seen the advent of seatbelts, airbags, lower blood-alcohol allowances, speed cameras, drug testing, young driver limits and greater enforcement.
We have supported all those measures (sometimes after a period of resistance) because we realised they were being brought in to try to keep more of us alive.
Now the government, despairing at the highest number of deaths on the roads in a decade, wants something more: an online test of road knowledge every time a driver renews their licence.
That is a truly terrific idea, I reckon.
Most of us get our licence as soon as we are legally allowed, champing at the bit to turn 17 and wheel our way down independence highway.
We accepted there were steps in that process. We accepted they cost us time and money. We gave both willingly.
And then our skills were never tested again – we got a one-off pass grade and that was it for good.
It is very strange, considering how high the stakes are.
In Queensland, new drivers now have to pass knowledge, hazard perception and practical driving tests.
This triumvirate (as well as a requirement to have truckloads of hours under the supervision of an experienced driver) has been developed to plug gaps in newbies’ readiness and stop so many of them dying.
What is good for them is good for those of us who have had our licence for years.
Are people scared they will be found out as a bit rusty and sloppy behind the wheel? Be made to brush up or re-affirm their road know-how?
How is that in any way a bad thing?
I don’t understand the resistance to checking that licensed drivers are still up to the task.
As a fellow road user, I would feel better knowing everyone on the blacktop has been recently assessed.
I would feel more confident in the currency of my own driving knowledge, too.
Dr Jane Stephens is a UniSC journalism lecturer, media commentator and writer.
