“Pedestrians are five times more likely to die on the roads in the NT than in other states and territories, and 87% of pedestrians killed in the NT since 2012 were Indigenous.”
QUT Centre for Justice member Professor Kieran Tranter, provided media commentary around these statistics last week.
Professor Tranter’s research has focused on how to reduce the NT’s high rate of Indigenous pedestrian deaths.
“Issues of speed, intoxication and not stopping are particularly prevalent, and clearly we need to address driver behaviour in relation to those three.
Professor Tranter said his research found a key way of reducing deaths was ensuring there are more ways for people to either catch public transport or to be transported home if they are heavily intoxicated.
“We need to look at programs and opportunities to enhance safe transport options for First Nations people so they’re not walking on the side of the road,” he said.
“Where there are some very high-risk roads, reducing speed limits could be one solution, greater police presence policing those roads could be another, and greater education [for] drivers.
“There aren’t enough First Nations patrols to help those people get home or to a safe place.”
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Professor Kieran Tranter is the Chair of Law, Technology and Future in the School of Law. He is the founding General Editor of Law, Technology and Humans. He is coordinator of the Datafication and Automation of Human Life Stream in the School of Law and co-lead of the Technologies of Justice stream in QUT Centre for Justice. Kieran researches law, technology and the future. Kieran is also a member of The Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety – Queensland (CARRS-Q). CARRS-Q was established in 1996 as a joint venture initiative of the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to address the enormous human, economic and social costs resulting from road crashes.
Read more about Kieran here
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