AS regular as clockwork at various times each year there are warnings to holidaymakers to drive safely, obey the road rules or risk penalties, fines or worse.
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We hear those warnings before the Christmas holidays, Easter and long weekends - like the Australia Day long weekend we're about to experience.
Statistics show the vast majority of us heed the warnings. There will be millions of car movements across the state over coming days. There will be plenty of near-misses, a bit of road rage on occasion, people flipping the bird or doing the myriad silly things we do when we're behind the wheel.
But by and large the vast majority of people will get from A to B without problems.
It's worth remembering that as we get on the roads this weekend. There are road rules, of course, but ultimately it's up to each person to have regard for others, and most of us do.
The tragic part of these warnings is that when crashes occur, in almost every case those involved did not intend to crash. They made mistakes. They took stupid risks. They failed to pay attention. They drank and drove. They drove too fast or too tired.
And that's how people die.
This weekend we will celebrate living in this country, the freedoms we have and the blessings we almost take for granted. But there will be a poignancy as well. While the majority of Australians can sit back and relax, at least for a few hours, on January 26, around the country many thousands of people are still in shock after losing their homes and businesses to catastrophic bushfires. Families who have lost loved ones in the fires have barely begun to grieve.
Thousands of volunteers will still be on duty, keeping fires in check and mopping up after old ones. It's still only January. This summer of flames and fury still has months to run.
So let's be careful on the roads this long weekend. Let's think twice about the duty we owe each other when we sit in a car and navigate our way through thousands of others in cars doing the same thing.
If the fires have shown us anything, it is that lives can change in an instant and when they do, what we want most is our old normal back. When people die in car crashes the lives of others are never the same. Family, friends, work colleagues, emergency workers bear the consequences.
So please drive safely.
Issue: 39,511.
