April 2022 Bulletin

Pedestrian Safety – This is Serious!

In recent weeks there have been a number of crashes between motor vehicles and pedestrians, some of which resulted in fatal consequences. On the 21st of April Tasmania Police issued a public warning about the increasing risks to pedestrians if they don’t comply with the road rules or fail to remain alert when they are on public streets.

They said:

Over the coming days police will be targeting high risk pedestrian behaviours such as inattention and distraction – walking and texting or listening to music and not obeying the walk/wait signals at traffic lights.

One week later, on the 28th of April, Hobart Police ran an operation which targeted high risk pedestrian behaviour. In the course of a few hours, they had reported 24 pedestrians for disobeying the stop walking signals. A further 86 pedestrians were issued with cautions for disobeying other traffic signals.

In 2012 A Review of Serious Casualty Pedestrian Crashes identified that crashes involving pedestrians accounted for 11% of all serious casualty crashes in Tasmania. This report highlighted the following:

• Teenagers are involved in more pedestrian crashes than other age groups.
• 25% of serious casualty pedestrian crashes occur between 3pm and 5pm.
• Alcohol was a prevalent cause of many pedestrian crashes on weekends.
• Almost two thirds of pedestrian crashes occur at mid-block type locations where the vehicle had priority, but the pedestrian walked or ran in front of it.

As Scott Pape would say, Tread your own path!

Crime Stoppers

Over the past nine months since Australia’s first permanent National Firearms Amnesty was launched, there have been over 13,000 buns surrendered across Australia. However, it has been estimated that a further 260,000 remain in circulation. A permanent firearms amnesty exists in Tasmania and Crime Stoppers have been actively encouraging community members who still possess unregistered firearms to surrender them to the police.

A key role of Crime Stoppers is to be a channel for people to anonymously pass information to the police which can help to prevent or solve crimes and offences. If you suspect that someone has an illegal gun you can report safely to Crime Stoppers by phone on 1800 333 000 or by email at crimestopperstas.com.au.

10 Year Crime Performance

Each Year Tasmania Police publish a Crime Statistics Supplement report which provides a detailed breakdown of the offences reported, or that became known, to police in that financial year. A cursory examination of this data provides a positive message as to the impact that police are having on crime across the state. A high-level comparison of the data over a period of 10 years indicates that between 2011/12 and 2020/21 there has been a significant improvement in the number of offences recorded and cleared in the course of a decade.