Tomorrow, Friday 29 May, is Fatality Free Friday down under. As noted on the website,

Road safety is a complex issue but we believe that if drivers consciously think about road safety and safe driving for just one Friday in the year, that day’s toll – statistically about 5.3 deaths – could be reduced to zero.

That’s our aim. Not a single road death in Australia for just one day. Just one Fatality Free Friday.

We believe that if drivers are asked to actively concentrate on road safety and safe driving for just one day in the year, they’ll drive safer for the next few days too and, over time, change their outlook completely, consciously thinking about safety each and every day they get behind the wheel.

Various events have been underway throughout Australia this week, promoting Fatality Free Friday tomorrow. I am delighted to be coordinating the Fatality Free Friday event for the Sunshine Coast region at the University of the Sunshine Coast, and I look forward to welcoming road safety partners Transport and Main Roads, Queensland Police, the Sunshine Coast Council, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, and Rotary, as we engage with our community so that we may all be safer on the roads.

Visitors will have the opportunity to take the pledge to be safer drivers, signing an inflatable car; learn firsthand vehicle features which can help prevent a crash, and protect you in the event of a crash, from vehicle inspectors; engage with police officers who will be attending with a police vehicle and a police motorbike; access a breadth of road safety resources; see and hear the wake of sadness which follows a crash from a display of thongs representing Sunshine Coast community members killed in road crashes over the past five years and from stories shared by the remaining family members; and learn about efforts being taken to improve young driver road safety in particular by community groups like Rotary and a researcher (me!).

I urge everyone, everywhere, to make every day a Fatality Free Friday for all road users.