March 1999 Volume 80 Number 3 "serving the protectors"
Feature - SA Cop's Expertise Sought From Abroad
By Brett Williams

Senior Constable Craig Scott recently had to travel 5,600 kilometres out of his jurisdiction simply to deliver some road safety lectures. As a member of SAPOL’s Traffic Safety and Promotion section, his expertise had been sought by the Jerudong International School in the oil-rich nation of Brunei.

The tiny yet opulent country on Borneo’s northern coast - known for the enormous personal wealth of its sultan - had been plagued by an alarmingly high road death toll in recent years.

The school’s principal contacted the Ottoway-based Traffic Safety and Promotion section and requested a lecture tour by one of its officers. He had heard of the section’s work from one of the school’s Australian teachers.

The Brunei traffic police, SA police commissioner, Mal Hyde, and the High Commissioner of Brunei granted permission for Scott’s missionary-type exercise.

Keen to spread the traffic-safety message beyond Australia, Scott arrived in Brunei on September 22 last year.

And he quickly found evidence of errant driving. Travelling by car to his hotel from the airport with the school’s assistant principal, Marg Flyvbjerg, he was overtaken by a speeding motorist.

“The car would have been doing at least 150 (km/h),” he says, “and the assistant principal didn’t even blink an eye. She said: ‘Oh, that’s natural.’

“There was just no restriction in relation to speed, and the traffic police didn’t worry too much about speeding.”

And Brunei police have good cause not to be over-zealous in their pursuit of traffic offenders. Scott says that if police officers stop VIPs associated with Brunei’s Royal Family, they can be dismissed.

But also on the day of Scott’s arrival, a police officer was killed in a motorcycle accident. The officer’s death brought a swift response from a Brunei police chief, Freddie Chong, who was then interested to pursue some proven road safety measures.

“All I could do was say: ‘Look, this is what we do and these are the road tolls that we have,’ ” Scott explains. “I think he was a bit surprised when he saw their figures compared to ours.

“They’ve got a population of approximately 350,000 yet they’ve got fatalities of around 60 (per year). South Australia has, per 10,000 people, a 1.5 fatality rate; their rate per 10,000 people is 4. Considering alcohol is banned (under Islamic law), their level is extremely high.

“I had a slide of about 10 different countries showing their fatality rates, and Brunei was right up there with the worst.”

Apart from excessive speed, Scott found that few of Brunei’s drivers wore seat belts. He says cars such as Ferraris and BMWs were commonplace, but their drivers believed themselves to be immune from injury. It was a case, Scott says, of over-confidence in their cars’ safety features.

Scott began his classroom lectures for years 10, 11 and 12 students the day after he arrived. Among Brunei’s accidents last year, one youth was killed and two others suffered paraplegia and brain damage.

“I devised three types of programmes and incorporated some video footage of what does happen when people are involved in crashes,” he says.

“We talked about ways of getting around (accidents); how to avoid being part of the problem; and just cutting down the chances (of being in accidents). I would say it’s the first time they’ve ever had anyone talk to them about the roads and driving.

“I had one of the lads there who was involved in a crash who still had the scars on his head. He wrote a letter to the students which he read out on the last day. I think that worked: having someone there who people could see.”

By the end of his final round of lectures, Scott had instructed 85 students, most of whom openly endorsed his efforts. He hopes to return for further lectures some time after 2000.

He described the trip as reflecting positively on the Traffic Safety and Promotion section, SAPOL and the State. The section’s lecture programme, he says, could be confidently offered to other international schools.

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