"DRIVE SAFELY" - it's a message we hear time and time again. Whether it's from our friends, colleagues or a concerned family member, it's ingrained into our daily lives.
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And, over the next seven days, the message will be sent loud and clear across the country, for National Road Safety Week.
The campaign, which was launched in 2012, focuses on raising awareness regarding the importance of safety on our roads.
On Monday, May 6, to kick off the week, Member for Bathurst and shadow minister for police Paul Toole, highlighted the importance of the initiative, especially considering the 2024 road toll.
In Australia, more than 1200 lives have been lost to road accidents in the last 12 months, and so far this year, 124 people have died on NSW roads alone.
Eight of these deaths have occurred in the Central West alone.
These fatalities are often local people, and the impact can be felt throughout local communities.
"There are more fatalities in regional and rural NSW. And we often think that it's someone from the city, or someone who is a tourist, or someone from out of town, but in a lot of these cases, it is locals," he said.
"It's local people who are losing their lives on our roads."
Just last week in Bathurst, a young father was killed after colliding with a telegraph pole, shocking the local community.
With the prevalence of the message at an all time high, Mr Toole said it was especially important for drivers to stick to the road rules, and to save lives by doing so.
"We need people to do the right thing each and every day. We need people to remember that each time they get behind the wheel of a car, the decisions they make can have fatal consequences," he said.
These decisions, according to Mr Toole, are based around those factors that we know contribute to the devastating road toll.
This includes elements such as speeding, driving under the influence, not wearing a seat belt, driving while fatigued, and using a mobile phone behind the wheel.
"Do the right thing"
"This National Road Safety Week is a reminder for us to not become complacent, and to do the right thing, so that when we get behind the wheel of the car, we know that we're a safe driver, but we're also keeping other motorists safe," he said.
"It's not okay to speed. It's not okay not to use your seat belt. It's not okay to use your mobile phone while driving."
This message was reiterated by traffic inspector of the Chifley and Central West district, Ben Macfarlane, who said there will be an increased police presence throughout the week.
This will include an increase in highway patrol vehicles and Chifley PD vehicles on the road, which will be targeting road safety and negative road user behaviour, especially in high fatality areas.
And though the official campaign only lasts one week, Inspector Macfarlane said the messages extend far beyond that of a seven-day period.
"If I had it my way we would have every week as National Road Safety Week," he said.
"A week of road safety messaging is great, but it can't stop after this week, it has to carry on every day."
This means that drivers, and everybody on the road needs to do their utmost to ensure not only their own safety, but the safety of all road users, to avoid any further tragedy.
