In the Mercury article “Crashes spark police action” (Fri 10 Jul 2009 14:30:00 EST) [link - http://tools.themercury.com.au/yoursay/comment_all.php ], poster ‘sarah newn of hobart’ (11:50am Saturday) pointed out that “more driver education will not work. We have seen the same for drugs and sex and what do we have more drug use and more STD’s that ever”.

Sarah is spot on, (although improved driver TRAINING might do some good.)

Most of these so-called ‘education’ campaigns are just glorified information campaigns, and it would be fair to say that quite often those who should absorb the information don’t even get the message. But ‘education campaign’ sounds so good, as if some Very Clever and Caring People are working Really Hard at it Just For You (and you should all be thankful, now).

They are the equivalent of Marching Over a Bridge near You to ‘solve’ the problems of indigenous people. And haven’t there been media reports that sex education in both the US and the UK has failed to significantly reduce teenage pregnancy rates in those two counties?

In the matter of fatal road crashes, doesn’t it all boil down to two things, no matter how bad the weather is, or the roads are: (i) accepting personal responsibility, and (ii) severely punishing the flouting of it?

And, having done several trips a year on the Hume Hwy in the late 1970s (when it was further from freeway standard in NSW than is our current Midland Hwy), I have to endorse ‘C. Venn of Hobart’ (6:38pm Friday): “I travel the Midland Hwy often & have spent lots of time on the Hume Freeway between MLB & SYD. The Midland Hwy could be better but it’s the drivers not the road who are responsible.” Mainlanders who drive the Midland Hwy often claim to be familiar with much worse roads, but not with driving as stupid as what they see on our No 1 artery.

Demanding more police swarming the roads is an example of knee-jerk, short-term panic mongering, because the police can’t keep up this level of surveillance without more neglect of other just as important duties. As for making the Midland Hwy dual carriageway, there are credible claims that this massive expense would use up the entire State budget, which, ironically, would remove all police from our roads.

What we need more of:  (i) enforcing existing laws, then (ii) following up on fines, penalties and bannings -  haven’t there been media reports of uncollected^ multimillions in fines and fees, going back over several years, even decades?

What we need less of: (i) special purpose laws, rules and regulations, requiring more bureaucrats and officials (let alone time off for study tours and inservice seminars), and (ii) another series of photo-ops of politicians in fluoro-vests and hard-hats (unless, p’raps in the path of a log truck bearing down on them).

^ You just don’t seem to be able to get good help these days, in terms of sensible management and programmed maintenance.