Survive the drive and arrive alive this Easter | opinion

The little details always come to mind. 

The somber faces of onlookers, who couldn’t quite believe what they were witnessing. 

The amount of crumpled car debris which was strewn over the road. 

The fact the RAC Rescue Helicopter was called out to the scene, but was turned back before it could arrive. It was already too late. 

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Now every time I drive past that point, a wooden cross acts as a reminder.

Without fail, it will always has me wondering how emergency workers able keep doing their jobs.

That was just one hour out of one day – tops – and I struggle thinking about it. 

Yet, for those men and women, it was a normal day at work. 

I don’t like to think about the horrors to which they must bear witness on a regular basis.

But I do think about how easily some of these incidents could have been avoided. 

How many stupid risks people take without thinking twice. 

Just this week alone, my daily commute has been filled with drivers on their phones, cars cutting in front of other vehicles, and people speeding down suburban streets. 

And I live five minutes away from work. 

What is it going to be like this weekend, when families travel for hours around the state to enjoy their Easter holidays? 

With factors like fatigue and speeding, the four-day weekend can prove to be carnage on WA roads. 

The latest Road Safety Commission statistics show that of the 4102 people killed or seriously injured on regional WA roads between 2012-2016, 21 percent involved fatigue.

Meanwhile speed was a factor in 18 percent of fatal and serious crashes.

The extra time it would have taken to pull over and take a break, or to actually travel at the speed limit is – at the end of the day – a small price to pay.

Getting to your destination quicker is not worth risking your life. Or the lives of your loved ones. 

Sure, you can go ahead and believe that it will never happen to you. That you’re only a “little tired” or it’s “only 10kms over”. 

But for every one of those statistics there was a person who probably thought it wasn’t going to happen to them either.