 First of all I'd just like to thank everyone for coming here today for a very important issue. I'd also firstly like to acknowledge Commissioner Ian Stewart as well as Ron James from the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service as well as David Eales from the Queensland Ambulance Service, other representatives from the RACQ here also, members from the Department of Transport. It's very important here for the launch of the 2012 Christmas Safety Campaign. And this particular year, as in previous years, we've had the fatal four. But due to the increased amount of traffic offence notices over the last three years, particularly in the areas of distraction and inattention, we've had to increase the fatal four to the fatal five. And we know police are out there hard working on the streets, but we need all Queenslanders to step up to the mark and remember to look after themselves, their loved ones and other Queenslanders. So this particular year, we're introducing the fatal five. And the fatal five is quite simple, speeding, fatigue, seat belts, drunk driving, distractions and inattention. So please just remember, remember the fatal five and stay alive. We want all Queenslanders to have a safe Christmas festivities. But please, remember your attention, don't be distracted and get to your location safely. We've seen too many Queenslanders pass away on our roads. Current road toll is 265, which is 12 above last year's total. And I'm really do, I'm actually begging all Queenslanders to please look after each other and their vehicles, look after their mates. We don't want any loss of lives because it's hard enough on the families, but also the loved ones and the community and particularly the emergency service workers to have to attend these tragic events. So we have to make sure that we look after all road users and remember the fatal five, which is very important. As we've seen a number of increases in traffic incidences over the over the last three years in particular where we've seen in relation to inattention and distractions being involved in over 15% of injury accidents that people have attended hospital particularly over the last 12 months. So this increase of inattention from mobiles, twittering or other technical devices in vehicles. And I just say to all the community out there that no phone message or tweet or music message is worth your life or the life of a loved one. So please don't get distracted. Make sure you enjoy the privilege of owning a driver's license. And remember that it is a privilege not a right and to look after everyone through the Christmas period. Drive safely, obey the road rules and get to your location in a safe manner. I'll just get the commission to say a few words, please. Thanks minister and good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and thank all of you for being here to what I consider is one of the most important days and that is the start of our Christmas road safety campaign. The state campaign kicks off at midnight tonight, runs right through until the new year. The national campaign runs from the 23rd of December through till the third of January. We actually here in Queensland keep going and and work into the the new year and then kick in again with another campaign for the start of the school year. But the minister's right. No amount of driving while distracted is worth a life. And I would ask all Queenslanders please obey the law. Don't touch that phone. Don't start doing something that will take your attention away from driving that motor vehicle. We know that it is becoming a factor in serious road crashes including fatalities. You can make the choice. You the driving public can make that choice. Please, accessibly make sure you get to your destination and be with your family over this Christmas new year period. Thank you. Absolutely it will be a concentrated effort by all of our officers on the on the entire fatal five but particularly in attention this year. Driving with our due care and attention is a $330 fine and three demerit points. I'd rather no one is is intercepted and given one of those fines but I think the reality of life is that we'll be handing out quite a few this Christmas. But I do implore people think about what you're doing that one second in attention can cost a life. How are you going to police that I suppose? I mean it's a lot harder to sort of see through people's windows. To some extent it is particularly with tinted windows that we have but certainly I think every one of you has seen examples of people grab that mobile phone. Look I've seen in traffic people doing the most ridiculous things putting makeup on having a shave in the morning while they're driving the car even eating their breakfast. I mean just crazy stuff and as I said this is a very very simple decision to make. You have ways of being able to you know techniques of being able to see that. There are some covert techniques that we do use yes but in reality most people are being caught outright simply by when they pass a police vehicle they just don't seem to have any sense of what they're doing is is wrong or dangerous. That's got to change. Absolutely it all fits within the driving without due care and attention. Do you mean using it for social media while they're driving? Oh look I'm sure they do and that's one of the problems I think we have. This is what we're trying to stamp out. We believe that the use of particularly of mobile phones in other electronic devices is becoming a major factor in our road crash statistics. We want to stamp that out. Look I think you'll see all ages utilizing their phones and their devices and quite honestly I'd ask some of the media if they want to go down to the nearest road major road here on North Key and stand there for 10 minutes. I can almost guarantee you you will see someone breaking the law. Pardon my ignorance commissioner but even say something like eating a burger with just one hand on your one hand that's an offence as well correct? Absolutely it is. That can be evidence of of inattention and distraction. Obviously given the last the weekends you know five people died this just makes this message even more important. Our road safety statistics and road crash statistics as of the morning and this is one of the things that I pass to the minister every morning. It was this morning was 265 plus 12 which means we've had 265 registered fatalities this year on our roads. We are 12 more than the same time last year and last year our total for the whole year was 269 and I I mean everyone can do the maths. We don't want another death on Queensland Road to spoil someone's Christmas. No I still haven't got a full report on that and because of the nature of this accident and the the absolute devastation that it caused to both the vehicles involved the fact that the driver of the unit that came in behind that crashed into the stop car passed away it makes it all that more difficult to get a definitive answer. Minister are the current laws the current penalties for inattention not scaring people? Look it's it it's not a figure that's that we're very proud of as Queenslanders when we see that over 90 000 tickets were issued for either distraction or inattentiveness in vehicles throughout Queensland. 90 000 people committing offences on our roads and of the as the commissioner alluded to of the 265 deaths on our roads this year a lot of them would have been avoidable if people remembered the fatal five so I really do implore that is particularly to this Christmas festive period is to remember the fatal five and stay alive because you've got to look after your mates and sorry. Look it certainly does and there's a magnificent amount of research that goes into identifying what are the special needs to identify the fatal five and when we see that enormous amount of rise in figures in relation to mobile phone usage and other distractions in our vehicles we have to act on that and we have to be on the front foot in relation to road safety and that is why we're including it in the fatal five because we we simply have to send a clear message that there is so many avoidable accidents deaths and injuries on our roads because people are making the most silliest decisions over a matter of seconds that puts their lives and the lives their loved ones or other community and any fatality with all the the horrific tragedy that comes with it people just don't get a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones so please I do implore everyone don't put yourself in that circumstances make sure you arrive safely and obey the fatal five. Oh look I think what we'd like to see is is is no one committing any of these offences in the first place and we'll always have a balanced approach to making sure that we send the strong message out to the community and but we'll balance that with education and enforcement and I really do implore the police cannot do this by themselves we have to ensure that the people of Queensland take responsibility for their driving actions look it's I've attended I've attended many fatals myself in previous occupations and it's it's not just the you know the accident scene it's the emotions the smells the noise and they stay with emergency service workers for the rest of their lives and it does impact on their families and but thankfully we have the best of the best in all our emergency services we've got the finest police officers ambulance officers fire and rescue officers SES as well as from the Department of Transport and they do a magnificent job they do a professional job there is that we do have a number of HR and safety compliances in place to assist those officers but obviously it's a it's a burden that many emergency workers have to bear because simply people are not being responsible on the roads and it's up to those individuals if you're in a vehicle sickly over this this festive season and you see someone misbehaving in your car talk up put your hand up all Queenslanders and say remember the fatal five and stay alive make drive that home to every road user so we can get all Queenslanders home safely certainly we don't like going to any of these accidents it does have a cost on our people but as it does with every one of the emergency services but when you have a multiple fatality involving particularly young people and sometimes children that probably has even a greater a greater impact on on the emergency services the ones who have to come along to investigate it clean up the mess and with that can I also thank all of the emergency services for the work that they do every day in trying to keep Queensland safe and you see this great group behind us here which is showcasing all of the people who try every day to keep Queenslanders safe on our roads and in particular can I also congratulate RACQ for the great work that they continue to do on behalf of every Queenslander and there's one more group that's probably one of the most important groups getting this road safety message out to our community and it's you the media if you continually give that message back to the community I'm sure that it does have an impact and I thank you very very much for not only covering this but covering all of the road safety initiatives that the emergency services and the minister's portfolio has been involved in and also the transport portfolio so thank you