Twenty people have died on our region’s roads since New Year’s Eve.
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Twenty.
Let that number sink in for a minute.
That is 20 families who will never be able to hug their loved one again.
It is 20 families for whom Christmas, birthdays and other family celebrations will never be the same again.
There will always be a family member missing on those happy occasions — forever tingeing them with sadness.
It is also 20 groups of friends who will never see their mate’s smiling face and get to just hang out with them again.
And 20 members of a community that have been lost for ever.
It is a truly terrifying statistic.
I can’t remember a time I have spent working as a journalist where I have had to cover this many fatalities in such a short time — and I have been in this gig for a very long time now.
The police and other emergency services, including the Search and Rescue, SES, ambulance officers and firefighters, who are seeing these crashes all too often must be pulling their hair out.
They are the ones with the unenviable task of getting up close to crash scenes.
They have to help remove people’s lifeless bodies from cars.
They have to inform families they will never see their mother, father, daughter, son, sister or brother ever again.
I don’t envy any of these emergency services personnel these tasks.
They must be horrific beyond belief.
Part of my role as a journalist is to attend these crash sites and report on these fatalities.
It is the part of my job I hate the most.
I grew up in Shepparton, I went to school here, I have spent much of my working life in jobs in towns around our region, and now I am back living here again.
I have family here.
I have friends here.
I know a lot of people.
And every time I am called to a cover a fatal accident I wonder, ‘is this going to be the time I will know the person who has died?’
And, sadly, sometimes it is.
For me, the Goulburn Valley is littered with roads that as I drive along them, I remember the crashes I attended there and the people who died.
Some roads strike fear in me and I avoid them wherever possible because I have attended so many crashes there.
Reporting on crashes is a role tinged with so much sadness, both for the lives lost and those who will forever be affected by these tragedies — the family and friends of those who died, other innocent drivers who are often involved and have to live with what has happened for the rest of their lives, the emergency services volunteers who are first on the scene.
It is also the realisation that just one split second of a lack of concentration is all it can take to change lives for ever.
The ripple effect of fatal crashes on the community in small, and even big towns, is huge.
Those who died might have been a member of your footy or netball club, a work colleague, a neighbour, the parent or sibling of one of your workmates or classmates, the bloke you used to bump into on a night out, someone you knew from church. The list is endless.
Each and every one of these 20 deaths on our roads affects so many people.
We have to take responsibility for our own actions.
Make sure you are concentrating.
Don’t be distracted by your phone, or by trying to change the music you are listening to.
Keep your eyes on the road and don’t drift off into your own thoughts on a long and boring drive.
Keep your eye on other drivers, too.
We also need to call out any bad driving behaviour by friends or family members.
Speak up if they are doing something wrong.
I implore all of you, please be safe on our roads.
We don’t want any more fatalities.
Senior Journalist