You can only offer free public transport for a few days before the grip of the steering wheel beckons. Squatting the rest of 2024 and into New Year's Day it's a festering heap of 37 peeled off the bitumen.
Thrown over the line like a body through two windshields, New South Wales claws back the top with 10, leaving it all out on the roads. In the seasonally named days of Operation Christmas/New Year 2024 it's a killer buzz to be the buzz kill. And when that cloaked stranger with a rusty blade asks if you'd like to move to another location it's a question on whether or not you're leaving a road for unknown pastures. Seven of the has-been vehicle smears writ with "died at the scene".
Out from the depths of the hot zone, South Australia clinches second spot with eight (8) no longer on the roads. During Operation Safe Holiday the state went up and down the named elevations and points from Mount Crawford and Swan Reach to Wattle Flat and Pewsey Vale. In two separate melting pots it was a clash of station wagons and motorbikes. The station wagon always wins. Though reported on 2 January 2025, a 60-year-old from Tumby Bay scraped in with the tally for 2024.
Third sees Victoria with six (6) cleared off the benches. Throughout Operation Roadwise (itself starting at 13 December) they missed out on more with a ute filled to the brim with kids, but no skids. On a camping theme, one of the toasted was at a campground on Tamboritha Road while the other got roasted in a parked truck.
Queensland saunters in with a burning set of tyres at fourth with five (5) and almost a horse. It was a high time to swap out an old Toyota with most of the scenes clearing out inventory. That is unless a horse gets involved and then it's just a two-wheeler. Who knows if future scores will include e-scooters to beef up the gristle mill.
Western Australia gave way with three (3) to rest in fifth place. Between a rock and a hard place is better than being between a tree and a careening car as the latter did not wake up the next day in two incidents.
Rolling in the dark at equal sixth place, Tasmania and Northern Territory with two (2) each on the rolling carts.
Tasmania ran through Operation Safe Arrival with a 50% flip. A banner ditch effort with both scenes featuring a silver Honda of some type. An Accord in Tonganah and a CRV in Perth, showing what happens when one car challenges a pole and two parked cars.
For the NT they took went a fruit smoothie route with a 74-year-old in Berry Springs and a 60-year-old in Berrimah. Both happening in the 19:00 timeslot, a late hour for hint of a day beverage.
The ACT turned up with one (1), chalking up as eleventh for the territory's year. In a car park duel between a car and a pedestrian the latter walked away. Conspicuously the report notes the driver being a 75-year-old whereas the pedestrian features no age, there into the ether.
Up from last year, soothed the waters will be as the clock runs out from 00:00 Friday 20 December 2024 to 23:59 1 January 2025. A shifted timeline when the middle of the holiday falls inside the week. And in the middle of it all during the Boxing Day yacht race it was an inter state get together as Sydney to Hobart with South Australia and Western Australia throwing some prawns off the bow.
Written on Monday, 6 January 2025