The New Road To Safety

20/10/2024

You can help make our roads safer and prevent needless tragedy. Please sign and share my petition to reduce road trauma by advocating for stronger laws and real rehabilitation for impaired and repeat dangerous drivers. Just as we changed attitudes around domestic violence, we can make life-endangering driving socially unacceptable. By doing so, we can reduce the trauma many families face. Together, we can save lives and demand justice for families like mine who have suffered preventable losses. Your support matters. https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/la/Pages/ePetition-details.aspx?q=j4ejhDHPyA4V0lK0gAXpjg – Duncan Wakes-Duncan Wakes-miller Road Trauma Support Group NSW

06/09/2024

A Personal Plea for Safer Roads and Justice

My name is Duncan Wakes-Miller, and four years ago, my family’s world was shattered when we lost my son Barney in an avoidable car crash caused by a drunk, inexperienced driver. Since that terrible day, I’ve committed myself to seeking justice—not just for Barney, but for all the families who have been devastated by preventable road deaths.

The current laws in NSW fail to adequately address the most dangerous drivers—those impaired by drugs or alcohol and recidivist high-speed offenders. These are the drivers who pose the greatest threat to public safety, yet too often, they face minimal consequences. We must change that. Dangerous driving needs to become as socially unacceptable as domestic violence. It's time to shift the culture and treat these crimes with the seriousness they deserve.

The tougher road rules I’m advocating for are specifically targeted at impaired drivers and repeat high-speed offenders. These measures include stronger consequences for those who repeatedly put lives at risk, as well as mandatory rehabilitation programs and alcohol interlocks to prevent further tragedies. This isn't about punishing all drivers—it's about focusing on those who endanger others and making dangerous driving a social anathema.

I’ve launched a petition to drive these changes, but I need your support. I urge you to read the full article, learn about the heartbreak so many families have endured, and join me in pushing for laws that can save lives. Your signature could be the first step toward a safer future for all of us.

Thank you for standing with us.

— Duncan Wakes-Duncan Wakes-millerBarney Wakes-Miller Memorial Bella Wakes-Miller

The Parliament of New South Wales acknowledges and respects the traditional lands of all Aboriginal people, and pays respects to all Elders past and present. We acknowledge the Gadigal people as the traditional custodians of the land on which the Parliament of New South Wales stands.

06/09/2024

A Personal Plea for Safer Roads and Justice

My name is Duncan Wakes-Miller, and four years ago, my family’s world was shattered when we lost my son Barney in a tragic car crash caused by a drunk, inexperienced driver. Since that terrible day, I’ve committed myself to seeking justice—not just for Barney but for all the families who have been devastated by preventable road deaths.

The current laws in NSW fail to adequately address the most dangerous drivers—those impaired by drugs or alcohol and recidivist high-speed offenders. These are the drivers who pose the greatest threat to public safety, yet too often, they face minimal consequences. We must change that, and you can help. Dangerous driving needs to become as socially unacceptable as domestic violence. It's time to shift the culture and treat these crimes with the seriousness they deserve.

The tougher road rules I’m advocating for are specifically targeted at impaired drivers and repeat high-speed offenders. These measures include stronger consequences for those who repeatedly put lives at risk, as well as mandatory rehabilitation programs and alcohol interlocks to prevent further tragedies. This isn't about punishing all drivers—it's about focusing on those who endanger others and making dangerous driving a social anathema.

I’ve launched a petition to drive these changes, but I need your support. I urge you to read the full article, learn about the heartbreak so many families have endured, and join me in pushing for laws that can save lives. Your signature could be the first step toward a safer future for all of us.

Thank you for standing with us.

— Duncan Wakes-Miller

The Parliament of New South Wales acknowledges and respects the traditional lands of all Aboriginal people, and pays respects to all Elders past and present. We acknowledge the Gadigal people as the traditional custodians of the land on which the Parliament of New South Wales stands.

03/08/2024

Change the way we think and drive.
(This is an Opinion Piece article I had published in the Daily Telegraph in Australia on Thursday, August 1st, 20204).

A drunk driver killed my seventeen-year-old son Barney Wakes-Miller in July 2020. Barney’s death was no accident but an act of vehicular homicide.

Barney’s vehicular homicide highlights massive deficiencies in how the police and the judiciary handle road crime and how members of the public have a moral duty of care to ‘speak up and step in’ to stop this happening.

The driver escaped with a non-custodial sentence and a 12-month driving ban…The lack of justice is hard to contend with, let alone explain to our other children.

I said soon after that “there was no deterrent aspect at all to the sentence. Worse, it may even encourage young men to repeat the drinking, speeding, showing off aspects of the offence safely in the knowledge that they will likely avoid jail and, in a practical sense, avoid any sort of punishment.”

Society has successfully changed conventional thinking about behaviours that endanger lives. Dangerous and impaired driving must become a social anathema, like domestic violence has.

We can make the reckless and willful neglect of human life inherent in dangerous driving socially unacceptable. Consider how attitudes have shifted on sexual and domestic violence and fatal coward-punch assaults.

The impact of impaired driving creates a ripple effect, a trauma tidal wave claiming innocent lives and shattering families.

Getting tough on deliberate high-range speeding and impaired driving is not an attack on the vast majority of safe road users, it is a necessary measure to protect everyone on the road. We all can and must speak up, step in, and take action whenever we witness wilful acts that are a danger to life.

Cultural shifts require collective effort and vocal advocacy. Just as campaigns have educated us on seat belts and the dangers of smoking we need sustained campaigns to highlight the social unacceptability of dangerous driving.

This means integrating these messages into our media, schools, and daily conversations. We should amplify the voices of those who have suffered turning their stories into powerful catalysts for change.

We must support legislation that enforces stricter penalties and effective rehabilitation for offenders. This includes preventative measures, increasing random breath tests, and investing in technology that prevents recidivist drunk driving.

It’s about creating a society where getting behind the wheel while impaired or driving aggressively is as socially unacceptable as any other violent act. A culture where every driver understands their responsibility to others, ensuring that our roads are safe for everyone.

My petition link: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/la/pages/epetition-details.aspx?q=j4ejhDHPyA4V0lK0gAXpjg

04/06/2024

Cars don’t kill people; people kill people.

Words do matter. Spilling milk on the kitchen table is an accident. How would you feel if the death of your loved one at the hands of a drunk and reckless driver was described as a car accident? We must end this language of denial. Traffic crashes are all too often avoidable problems caused by unsafe drivers. Learning how to talk about traffic crashes accurately and respectfully will save lives.

Every time I hear another road death or serious injury described by journalists as an accident, it makes my skin crawl. In many cases, the cause is the reckless indifference to others and the criminal action of an individual driver.

When judges, magistrates, or employees of the unhappiest place in the NSW public service, the Office of Public Prosecutions, describe road killers' actions as an accident, it demonstrates how out of touch they are. When the current NSW Attorney General, Michael Daley, spoke in the NSW parliament in 2024, he commented that road deaths are above acceptable levels. Was that a faux pa from a government seat warmer? Or does the Attorney General believe that maintaining an acceptable number of deaths is ok? Ask any of our incredible NSW Police or first responders who have to attend these scenes of carnage, and I bet you might get a different answer.

Responsible reporting on road crashes is crucial for informing the public and promoting safety. Full and accurate reporting of road trauma incidents can significantly contribute to understanding how crashes happen and what can be done to prevent them. People will be able to understand dangerous behaviours and then possibly have the courage to speak up and step in to prevent harm. Letting people have a few too many drinks and driving home or seeking kudos by driving excessively fast are too often tolerated behaviours. In my opinion, if you want to know what you like, believe in, and find important, then look at your behaviour and what you accept. You may surprise yourself, and you can make a difference. Think about how attitudes to domestic violence or lack of consent have changed.

Accurate and responsible reporting can change attitudes toward dangerous driving in our community. Too many journalists seek the hot hit of sensationalism without care or concern. It's time they received direct feedback, and that’s where you can help.

If you see or hear a journalist misuse the term accident, whether it be on TV, printed or social media, please comment and call them out and point them in the direction of the guidelines that I wrote to help them https://www.rc-rg.com.au/guidelines. Tell them this:

“Please do not use the term ‘accident’. It risks making criminal crashes seem inevitable and unavoidable”.

Thank you; your words matter.

Note 1: There are 5 main types of crashes that result in injury or death. Many could be prevented by practising safe driving according to Transport For NSW. https://www.nsw.gov.au/driving-boating-and-transport/roads-safety-and-rules/safe-driving/avoiding-common-crashes

Note 2: The unhappiest place in the NSW public service the Office of the Directior of Public Prosecutions:
https://www.smh.com.au/cbd/the-unhappiest-place-in-the-nsw-public-service-20231114-p5ejxr.html

Note 3: I wrote the first Australian Road Crash Reporting Guidelines for the Road Trauma Support Group NSW; they are based on many people's lived experiences and seminal research into the reach and impact of road trauma in NSW, conducted by research agency FiftyFive5, part of Accenture Song. These guidelines aim to complement Australia’s journalistic principles of accurate, balanced, and inclusive reporting, support people impacted by road trauma, and educate the community about the risks and consequences of road trauma. The guidelines follow the UK Road Collision Reporting Guidelines adopted and backed by the UK's National Union of Journalists (NUJ). They also use the Mindframe guidelines for mental health reporting in Australian media as a reference source: https://www.rc-rg.com.au/guidelines.


-miller