Garth George: Dream of zero fatalities unattainable

The Easter weekend road toll came in at three, an astonishingly low figure. That is the second lowest Easter road toll on record, also achieved in 1998, 2002 and 2003.

Yet, instead of claiming significant success for years of road safety campaigns, the national road policing manager, Superintendent Carey Griffiths, wailed that three fatalities were three too many, ignoring the fact that over the past five Easter periods there have been an average of six road deaths.

But, you say, there were no fatalities over Easter last year. That, I'm afraid, was an aberration - simply a matter of luck.

When you consider that hundreds of thousands of vehicles carrying hundreds of thousands of people travelled hundreds of thousands of kilometres over the four-day weekend, the three deaths become statistically imperceptible.

And when you consider that most of those vehicles would often be travelling at 100km/h - close to 28 metres a second with an approach speed to oncoming traffic of twice that - often on inferior roads, then it is astounding that more people are not killed.

As well, far too few drivers these days understand that when you're piloting a tonne or more of metal and flesh along a highway, it requires 100 per cent undivided attention and an acute situational awareness.

What Mr Griffiths, and other before him, don't seem to understand is that the continued presence of drinkers and speedsters and dreamers behind the wheel makes it absolutely impossible for our roads ever to be fatality-free.

There will always be drivers who will drink and drive - certainly as long as the limit remains at 0.8 rather than 0.5 - drive too fast, give in to impatience, overtake dangerously, or be inattentive as well as incompetent at the wheel.

Among them will be those who don't have a licence, who drive vehicles that have no warrant of fitness and/or no registration, and some will drive cars that have been modified to the extent that the power-to-weight ratio is dangerous.

They are all a fact of life and no amount of road policing and educational or shock press and television road safety advertising will make one iota of difference to these menaces.

They will also blithely ignore all the owlishly wise roadside banners that have gone up on our highways in recent years because that is their nature.

They - and an awful lot of other people in all walks of life - are persuaded of two of the greatest deceptions known to the human psyche: "I'm different" and "It can't happen to me".

Add to all that the young age at which children can acquire a driver's licence, the sorry and dangerous state of many of our highways and byways, and any thoughts of radically lowering the road toll is simply an impossible dream.

Road fatalities for the five years to last year were, with one exception, steady in the 300s - 366 in 2008, 384 in 2009, 375 in 2010, 284 in 2011 and 308 last year.

For this year up to last Wednesday, there had been 67 road deaths nationwide, compared with 84 for the corresponding period last year. There were only 20 deaths in March, compared with 33 last year.

And while we can hope for the best, my projections indicate that road deaths for this year will be in the low 300s, hopefully no more than last year.

Provided the police and the transport authorities persevere with their multi-media road safety efforts, I'm afraid we'll have to settle for that.

So, in sympathy, let me remind Superintendent Griffiths, and others who dream of fatality-free roads, of the words of the great German physicist Albert Einstein: "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."