We’re at it again with lockdowns being a part of life and a part of something to ignore. Take it out on the empty and busy roads, the case to catch the ride into the afterlife is scattered amongst the leaves. Gurgling red and bubbly between Christmas 2020 and New Years the nation road toll culls 35 across Australia.
Victoria huffs up all the cotton swabs to stagger out of the tent with 14, kicking them into first. Again, to circle the city, it's the rural sector posting up the big numbers with the cases of metal and blood. A hefty number keeping the state well ahead of the competition.
Western Australia sprouts up into second with six (6) scratched into the bitumen. Then again, it was a case of metal versus nature with three slamming against trees. The bulk between Christmas and New Years ringing the same tune of:
“Holden Colorado with three occupants was travelling west along Julimar Road when the vehicle left the carriageway and struck a tree.” /
“a silver Toyota Camry was travelling south on Albany Highway went the vehicle left the road and struck a tree.” /
“a Kawasaki Motorcycle was being ridden north on Nornalup Road, when it left the road and struck a tree.“
Back down in third, New South Wales, claws out with five (5) during their seasonally titled campaign of Operation Christmas/New Year 2021. One of those ghosts of Christmas repetition as they call back with “the same number during the operation last year. In 2021, 269 people lost their lives on NSW roads, compared to 283 the previous year (2020).”
Nature was tilting at pouches up in Queensland. Notching four (4) overall, it was right into the new year, half way through Operation Tango Mistletoe, when one of the number was a dragon’s clip of both flora and fauna. “Preliminary investigations indicate around 2.30am a car was travelling north on the Carnarvon Highway approximately 27km north of Saint George when it has struck a kangaroo before hitting a tree.”
Over in South Australia things get stretchy as they look to take an extra week. Counting back and leaving off the lead-in, they only net three (3) during Operation Safe Holidays. It was close to clobber a varying definition of a road toll with an almost count of “an 18-year-old man was found with multiple knife wounds [...] occurred on a bus travelling west along Grenfell Street.”
Tasmania went double on two (2) in sixth place during Operation Safe Arrival. Basically washing things out with an unrelated incident taking out the past tense of things between “a 28-year-old man from Dover has died in a single vehicle crash on Cockle Creek Road at Cockle Creek.” and “a man has died following a diving incident near St Helens Island at St Helens.”
Let’s speak again of the trees, this time in the ACT with one (1) as they level out in the seventh post. Right after Boxing Day, it was “the death of a woman after a single-vehicle collision between a car and a tree at the intersection of Arrabri Street and Horse Park Drive, Ngunnawal.”
Nothing of note from the Northern Territory as they finish up class without a single score. Swapping spots with ACT from last year.
They say the excuses to stay away from having to see one another is only there for those not wanting for it. It's lax though, as the vax goes and we count the time between 00:00 24 December 2021 until 23:59 Monday 3 January 2022. When they open up the roads, perhaps we get the numbers that never stop climbing.
Written on Monday, 17 January 2022