{"id":236709,"date":"2019-05-30T13:45:30","date_gmt":"2019-05-30T03:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=236709"},"modified":"2020-09-21T10:45:04","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T00:45:04","slug":"a-heartfelt-plea-from-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/05\/30\/a-heartfelt-plea-from-police\/","title":{"rendered":"A Heartfelt Plea From Police"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Senior Sergeant Dave Tierney … “our greatest weapon in reducing this carnage on our roads is you, the community”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 30, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Senior Sergeant Dave Tierney, the Officer-in-Charge of Kingaroy Police, has written a heartfelt plea to the local community in the wake of the recent crashes.<\/p>\n

We are publishing it here in full:<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Can I start by offering my condolences to all the families, friends and those who are suffering in the local communities at the tragic loss of life across our community in the past few weeks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are no words or promises I can say or make that will ever ease the tragedy that will forever be part of your lives.<\/p>\n

Can I also say how deeply sorry I am to the other drivers involved and ask the families and friends of everyone impacted by these tragedies, to hold each other close and look out for each other.<\/p>\n

Sadly, incidents like these are repeated nearly daily throughout the State and around the country.<\/p>\n

During my 34 years as a police officer it has amazed me how readily we as a society have come to accept the death of hundreds each year on our roads both nationally and locally.<\/p>\n

As police, we no longer refer to these incidents as accidents but as crashes.<\/p>\n

“Accidents”, as the word implies,\u00a0may be unavoidable.<\/p>\n

But I can tell you, in my 34 years of attending crashes, most have been totally avoidable.<\/p>\n

Since taking over as the Officer in Charge at Kingaroy Police Station, we have continued our enforcement activities, continued existing education programs and implemented new ones.<\/p>\n

I have used every opportunity at meetings and community events to push the road safety message.<\/p>\n

I also reinforce to the community that for my officers to their job we rely heavily on the support of the local community.<\/p>\n

This does not just apply to solving crimes but more importantly to road safety.<\/p>\n

Yes, we have our Fatal Five that we educate and enforce \u2013 and that\u2019s important- \u00a0but I\u2019m not going to dwell on these today because frankly, I\u2019m feeling a little jaded and disillusioned that a number of people in the community \u2013 far more than you may think \u2013 appear not to care, or believe it doesn\u2019t apply to them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The amount of traffic offences we detect daily from community members across all demographics is disappointing.<\/p>\n

I have read with interest the comments in the media and social media from those who have solutions.<\/p>\n

\u2018There needs to be more police, tougher penalties, better education or better roads. Young drivers are hoons.\u2019<\/p>\n

But my plea to you is it\u2019s time for you to step up and for you to realise our greatest weapon in reducing this carnage on our roads is you, the community.<\/p>\n

Not the emergency services, not the government, not someone else, but you.<\/p>\n

As parents in cars, we model the behaviour to young eyes watching from the back seat, behaviours they will adopt.<\/p>\n

Slowing down when you get flashed because the police are ahead, not wearing your seatbelt because you’re just ducking down the shops, just quickly taking a call or checking your messages on your phone, just driving a few kilometres per hour over the speed limit, not taking a rest when you know you\u2019re tired because you don\u2019t believe you have time …<\/p>\n

The list is endless and each time you do it and there\u2019s no immediate consequence, the behaviour is often repeated, and becomes learned by others.<\/p>\n

We seem so readily to make excuses for our poor driving but not that of others.<\/strong><\/p>\n

No holiday venue, no appointment, nothing is that important that you need to take risks to get to it.<\/p>\n

It is up to us as individuals, parents, families and friends to stop these tragedies occurring.<\/p>\n

If you are in the car, call them on their poor driving behaviour.<\/p>\n

As parents, model the right behaviour.<\/p>\n

Talk about road safety and the importance of keeping vehicles roadworthy from an early age.<\/p>\n

Tell them of your concerns that one day they might not come home.<\/p>\n

Tell them speed limits are the maximum not the minimum, and to drive to the conditions \u2013 be it weather or road conditions.<\/p>\n

No phone call or text message is that important to risk never seeing loved ones again.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time that we, as the general community, all took some responsibility in this battle; yes, that\u2019s what it is \u2013 a battle, to change our driving behaviours and end the often senseless loss of life on our roads.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It know none of\u00a0this can undo the pain that is being suffered by those who have been affected, directly or indirectly, by the recent tragedies.<\/p>\n

As the Officer in Charge of this station, not only do I have a responsibility to you as a community to ensure that it is the safest community you can live in, but I also have a duty to protect my officers’ health \u2013 mentally and physically \u2013 not just for their sake but also that of their families.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re members of the community as well, and the tempo of attending recent crash scenes and delivering the worst possible message to families\u00a0takes it toll.<\/p>\n

This is unfortunately true across all our emergency services and hospitals, and no, it\u2019s isn\u2019t what we signed on for.<\/p>\n

I would also like to take this opportunity to personally thank the local community, both individuals and local businesses for the support they have shown to my staff through phone calls, emails and even food platters they have dropped in.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I would like to assure you that I\u2019m doing my best to ensure my staff get the support they need.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d also like to acknowledge the professionalism of all emergency services, tow truck drivers and council employees who attended these scenes as well.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d especially like to acknowledge the SES workers, who it must be remembered are just volunteers but who are always there whenever needed to assist.<\/p>\n

Incidents such as these devastate those with personal connections but also have a ripple effect and touch so, so many others.<\/p>\n

I was asked yesterday by the media at the scene of the most recent fatal traffic incident: What road safety message do I have. I was actually stumped and didn\u2019t really have an answer.<\/p>\n

Just get home safely seemed such a trivial thing to say, but as I reflect this morning at my desk, that is exactly the message I wish for everyone who uses our roads.<\/p>\n

Please, please, drive so you get home safely<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Finally, if you are struggling to deal with what has happened recently, please seek support and talk to someone whether that be family, friends, other locals in the community, or professional services such as Lifeline (13-11-14) or other support agencies (which are readily found via online searches).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senior Sergeant Dave Tierney, the Officer-in-Charge of Kingaroy Police, has written a heartfelt plea to the local community in the wake of the recent crashes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":276881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,3,24],"tags":[1132],"yoast_head":"\nA Heartfelt Plea From Police - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Senior Sergeant Dave Tierney, the Officer-in-Charge of Kingaroy Police, has written a heartfelt plea to the local community in the wake of the recent crashes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/05\/30\/a-heartfelt-plea-from-police\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Heartfelt Plea From Police - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Senior Sergeant Dave Tierney, the Officer-in-Charge of Kingaroy Police, has written a heartfelt plea to the local community in the wake of the recent crashes.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/05\/30\/a-heartfelt-plea-from-police\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-30T03:45:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-21T00:45:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/tierney1-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/05\/30\/a-heartfelt-plea-from-police\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/05\/30\/a-heartfelt-plea-from-police\/\",\"name\":\"A Heartfelt Plea From Police - southburnett.com.au\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-30T03:45:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-21T00:45:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\"},\"description\":\"Senior Sergeant Dave Tierney, the Officer-in-Charge of Kingaroy Police, has written a heartfelt plea to the local community in the wake of the recent crashes.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/05\/30\/a-heartfelt-plea-from-police\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/\",\"name\":\"southburnett.com.au\",\"description\":\"Kingaroy and South Burnett News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\",\"name\":\"Anne Miller\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Heartfelt Plea From Police - southburnett.com.au","description":"Senior Sergeant Dave Tierney, the Officer-in-Charge of Kingaroy Police, has written a heartfelt plea to the local community in the wake of the recent crashes.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/05\/30\/a-heartfelt-plea-from-police\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Heartfelt Plea From Police - southburnett.com.au","og_description":"Senior Sergeant Dave Tierney, the Officer-in-Charge of Kingaroy Police, has written a heartfelt plea to the local community in the wake of the recent crashes.","og_url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/05\/30\/a-heartfelt-plea-from-police\/","og_site_name":"southburnett.com.au","article_published_time":"2019-05-30T03:45:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-09-21T00:45:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":200,"url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/tierney1-300x200.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Miller","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/05\/30\/a-heartfelt-plea-from-police\/","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/05\/30\/a-heartfelt-plea-from-police\/","name":"A Heartfelt Plea From Police - southburnett.com.au","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-05-30T03:45:30+00:00","dateModified":"2020-09-21T00:45:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae"},"description":"Senior Sergeant Dave Tierney, the Officer-in-Charge of Kingaroy Police, has written a heartfelt plea to the local community in the wake of the recent crashes.","inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/05\/30\/a-heartfelt-plea-from-police\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/","name":"southburnett.com.au","description":"Kingaroy and South Burnett News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae","name":"Anne Miller","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236709"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236709"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265899,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236709\/revisions\/265899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}