The sentencing this week of 29-year-old Canberra man Peter Loeschnauer and his predictable five-year jail term for driving drunk, on drugs and speeding when he hit and killed a 19-year-old designated driver on the Monaro Highway was justice served.
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There were no positive outcomes in any of this.
There were none for Loeschnauer, who stupidly made the decision to drive home drunk at ridiculously high speeds on the Monaro Highway, nor for his father who turned up in court to support him.
And there will never be any solace for the family and friends of the victim, Lachlan Seary. They are grieving and suffering in a way that only those who have been through something similar can even hope to understand.
Yet another young, promising Australian's life was lost on the road for no reason other than the poor choices of another driver. Many tears were shed as the victim impact statements were read.
Sit in the ACT Magistrates Court or through the coronial hearings, and similar scenarios, albeit with different people, circumstances and outcomes, are replayed time and again. So much sadness.
Alcohol, drugs, inattention, speeding, showing off; the same risk patterns emerge again and again.
Offenders are wheeled through the court, their licences revoked, and sentences imposed. But they roll the dice nonetheless.
Those who are left behind, their lives shattered by the trauma and grief of losing a loved one, are left to wonder how others can be spared the same physical and emotional pain. How do we stop this carnage?
Decades of public enquiries have sought the same answer. The most recent one, a joint select committee on road safety chaired by former federal transport and health minister Darren Chester, is yet to hand down its recommendations.
Almost certain is that most of the recommendations will be unpalatable for many states and territories to legislate, others will be shelved/deferred and the rest left to quietly gather dust.
Families around the country have been broken by road trauma. They have wept long enough. It's time to appoint a federal road safety minister to take responsibility and make some tough decisions.
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