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Skaife says there are three critical areas which need to be tackled - driver training, road design and vehicle safety - before Australia can make genuine, sustainable cuts to the annual toll.
Retired racer Mark Skaife says he will do whatever it takes to make a difference to the road toll in Australia.
Skaife says there are three critical areas which need to be tackled - driver training, road design and vehicle safety - before Australia can make genuine, sustainable cuts to the annual toll. He wants safety experts, police, politicians, car companies and ordinary members of the community to join forces in a concerted effort to lift the standard of motoring in Australia.
"I'll roll my sleeves up to make a genuine effort to cut the road toll. If we are actually serious then I will put in all the effort, in whatever way I can, to help develop a better training and enforcement system," Skaife tells Carsguide.
"Driving is a vital life skill. We've got to be genuine about it. "There are so many things that, if we're genuine about the road toll, we should do to improve a real life skill."
Skaife has been a road safety campaigner for more than a decade - including an A-Z set of safety tips in Carsguide - has lifted things to a new level through his work as a reporter on Channel 7. He recently travelled to Germany to compare and contrast the country's work on road safety to the situation in Australia.
Skaife makes many conclusions after the experience, starting with the need for better driver training and a proposal to ban parents from teaching their children to drive. But he is being criticised for suggesting that a 140km/h speed limit is appropriate for some of Australia's newest and best-designed roads.
Skaife says he has a comprehensive series of proposals to cut the death toll, especially among young drivers, and worries that his message is being lost in the attack over the speed limit. "I've been on about this forever. The reality if that is that it is a complex social issue," says Skaife.
"There is not one silver bullet. There is no simple answer. "For the Victorian government, in isolation, to attack the speeding part of what I said is a joke. That's not what I'm on about."
Skaife says he is deeply impressed with what he saw in Germany, from the driver-education process through road design, the number of safer late-model cars on the roads and the attitude of the police to enforcing regulations against tailgating and poor lane discipline. "I did a multi-faceted article for the Sunday Night program around the need for improved driver training, building better roads and encouraging better driving," he says.
"It's obviously quite a hot topic. There is a different attitude to driving in Germany. They are about helping the fellow road user." He says his approach to cutting the death roll relies on more from governments.
"I'd like government to look seriously at what we do to improve licensing and driver education," Skaife says. "I would like government to encourage people to buy newer, safer cars "I would like the government to be serious about road design. There are corners all over this country that are poorly designer. Any corner that tightens as you go around it is potentially dangerous."
Skaife has three children - aged 15, 4 and two - and has also been a driver trainer for more than 15 years, partly through his long-term relationship with GM Holden. But he says teaching good driving is not linked to his record success as a V8 Supercar driver.
"I've done road safety and advanced driver training forever, for almost my whole life. Most of the driver training we do is teaching people to brake the car well, and trying to prevent accidents. People need to be aware of what's going on around them."
He says he is surprised to the reaction to his speed limit proposal because he knows and understands the impact of road deaths. "I totally accept that the faster you go the greater the risk. I'm basically saying that the German example is a lot different to ours and should be looking a lot further afield in terms of a solution to the problem on the roads.
"There wouldn't be a person in any community that has not been touched by this in some way. "But I'm worried that we look at it as a simple problem. It's almost like the government saying 'The crime rate is high, so stop stealing'. When you over-emphasise speeding that's not the answer."
