Prevailing Culture of Blame

It is clear that we have a complex and multidimensional relationship with cars, and we see cars as far more than objects with specific functionality. The car is often used as a status symbol, a way of demonstrating where we fit in society. In fact, some companies even ask to see your car as part of the interview process. The theory is that the way you keep your car (and by default, what you drive) indicates what kind of person you are, and how you conduct yourself.  

Television media has the added problem that it can generally only report things where there is dramatic footage to drive the story. Given that crash scenes are sanitised very quickly (at least in Australia), there are usually no graphic images to run. 

Eliminating Serious Injury and Death from Road Transport 

Some of these issues were explored in recent research by the Centre for Advanced Journalism at the University of Melbourne. The centre conducted a study about the way in which the media covered, and responded to, Victoria s 2009 bushfires. Dubbed Black Saturday, the bushfires represent the worst peacetime disaster in Australian history, claiming 173 lives, injuring more than 5,000 people, killing countless animals, destroying thousands of homes, and burning more than 4,500 square kilometres of land. The media coverage was intense, and the results of this research, which interviewed media personnel about the events that unfolded that day, are controversial. 

It is important to stress that we are not engaged in media bashing. At the end of the day, media conglomerates are businesses that focus on their bottom lines. Many journalists do an exceptional job under extremely difficult circumstances, and mostly, they are simply reporting the best information they have at the time. It is also important to realise that there are great opportunities for the media to contribute in the public health and public policy arenas. Certainly, part of the way in which the community views traffic safety is shaped by reporting in the media. But the public also has to take responsibility for what it wants to consume while we demand to know about boons and speed, then that is what sells and that is what will be reported. When it comes to traffic safety, maybe it is just too close to home, so we prefer to read about what happens to other people, the ones that can t or won t drive responsibly, or are totally inexperienced or are boons with five people in the luggage compartment. 

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