Key points
- Road safety campaign for international students from Nepal in Melbourne
- The funding is being provided from VicRoads
- No evidence to suggest foreign-born drivers are over-represented in accidents
In March 2019, when a group of friends from Nepal were traveling from Sydney to Melbourne, their trip was cut short at the NSW town of Mullengandra.
The car in which the five international students were travelling in crashed into a tree and rolled on the Hume Highway. An 18-year-old student was among the two killed due to the crash. The driver of the car succumbed to his injuries few days later in a Canberra hospital. Three others were injured.
Around the same time, another young Nepali woman lost her life after being struck by a vehicle in the Melbourne suburb of Glenroy.
As such incidents make headlines both here and overseas, members of the local Nepali community are hoping a new road safety initiative will help prevent such headlines in the future.
Nirajan Gauli from Australia Nepal Public Link is leading a road safety campaign for Melbourne's Nepali speaking community.
Road safety campaign for Nepali community members in Melbourne. Source: AAP
With experience as a civil engineer specialising in road construction, he says hearing news about such tragedies is what encouraged him to get involved.
“Many of our brothers and sisters, Nepali friends in Australia have lost their lives in road accidents. The road rules here are very different to what many are used to in Nepal,” he told SBS Nepali.
In recent years, just until the pandemic hit, as the number of people migrating to Australia either on temporary or permanent visas from Nepal has increased, so has the people from the community involved in road accidents.
With funding support from VicRoads, Nepali Public Link is now providing road safety and driving training, which they say is benefiting hundreds of members of their community.
Nirajan Gauli Source: Nirajan Gauli
What the data says
Pointing to an Australian Transport Safety Bureau extensive review of crashes, Victorian Department of Transport (VDoT) says it found no evidence to suggest foreign-born drivers were overrepresented in accidents compared with Australian born drivers and are far less likely to be involved in crashes involving alcohol or excessive speed.
Victorian crash data indicates 2.86 per cent of fatal and injury crashes in Victoria involve international drivers, and 3.7 per cent involve interstate drivers.
“We have recently simplified the rules for drivers with interstate and overseas licences, which will further improve safety for all Victorian road users,” a spokesperson from the department told SBS.
VicRoads funded road safety campaign for Melbourne's Nepali community Source: AAP
Educating Community
Mr Gauli says partnering with VicRoads, the roads and traffic authority, in the second most populous state has been very helpful in providing practical and theoretical information about road rules in the state.
The ANPL is a recipient of VicRoads’ Community Road Safety Grant, which according to the VDoT, funds community groups and organisations across Victoria to deliver road safety initiatives.
“This year almost 70 councils, schools and not-for-profit organisations will deliver around 190 programs, providing hundreds of education sessions and local solutions to local road safety issues,” a spokesperson said.
"The grants program offers community road safety education, aligned with the Victorian road safety priorities, engages with local communities at a grass-roots level to empower them to help prevent and reduce the number of lives lost and severe injuries on Victoria’s roads."
In 2020/21, the department invested $1.3 million in funding for the Community Road Safety Grants Program which it says reached more than 400,000 Victorians through the delivery of hundreds of education sessions.
ANPL has also conducted a training program focussing on pedestrian safety.
Police perfrom a random alcohol and drug test on a driver in the Dockalnds precinct in Melbourne, Friday, Nov. 21, 2009. Source: AAP
“This program benefited about 300 Nepalis,” says Nirajan Gauli.
But, as with everything, the Coronavirus pandemic has altered Mr Gauli’s plans for awareness campaigns, having to now rely on online information sessions.
However, as COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease in Melbourne, ANPL is hoping to start three free driving lessons to 60 Nepali international students and stay-at-home women.
He also says a further ten people from the community will be trained to be bicycle coaches.
Safety concerns
According to Mr Gauli, the main problem that he sees is that many Nepali people learnt to drive overseas and aren't used to the road conditions in Australia.
He says many people in his native country learn to drive in an open paddock for a few hours.
“Throw in the complexities of trams and other traffic rules; it is completely different from what people back home are used to.”
“We are aiming to change this - at least in our own community," he adds.
Traffic Congestion (File Image) Source: AAP
Changes in license rules for overseas drivers
Overseas or interstate licence holders living in Victoria before 29 October 2019 were required convert to a Victorian licence within six months.
However, due to the coronavirus pandemic computer-based and practical driving tests have been suspended in Metropolitan Melbourne on the latest medical advice.
These customers now have until 29 April 2021 to convert their licence due to the pandemic.
People who arrived in Victoria on or after 29 October 2019 will also benefit from the 12-month regulation suspension. Still, their date for conversion will be after 29 April 2021 and will depend on their date of arrival in Victoria.
To help people work out what their particular date is, a ‘calculator’ is available on the VicRoads website.
Source: VicRoads
Demerit points for drivers with an overseas license
In Victoria, any breach of a traffic rule or driving offence committed by an overseas licence holder is an enforcement issue which is managed by the state police.
Where VicRoads is notified that an overseas licence holder has committed a driving offence which has associated demerit points, VicRoads must record this information.
When the overseas licence holder reaches or goes over their allowable limit, VicRoads will issue them with a disqualification notice.
The duration of the disqualification will depend on the number of demerit points they have accrued.
The minimum duration of disqualification is three months.
During the disqualification, the overseas licence holder cannot drive on Victorian roads, obtain a Victorian driver licence or learner permit.
