Letter from
Dale Maggs 

Hi Peter,

The Motorcycle Riders Association Australia, supports your efforts and wishes to assist you with your project.

We cheerfully invite you to link to our website and invite you to draw from our vast range of information.

We have worked in the same area many times and I personally have attended the office of the attorney General to have the laws changed to increase the penalty for those who have crossed the line and have no respect for the community.

I would ask you to perhaps do a joint media release confirming our support.

I have attached a couple of things a recent media release condemning a hoon, and a pic of my self and Attorney General Rob Hulls at the IR Rally he is a Scooter rider and a letter from a member whose brother Geoff was killed by a drunk driver which we helped to increase her sentence by going to Attorney General.

Regards
Dale Maggs 
President
MRAA
www.mraa.org.au

Letter from
Sue Dietrich

Congratulations on sending this driver off to prison.  Although he and his family are also all victims, of course justice must be served.

I am a new driving instructor in the Latrobe Valley and went to your website after listening to the news tonight.  I feel your website could

benefit by having a decal for sale showing support for your website's cause.  Maybe some decal people could put in their back window or something-

Maybe you haven't thought about furthering your cause beyond today's sentencing, but if you have - that's what I'd think about doing - getting support

by people putting some ad type thing on their cars promoting road safe attitude.

Sue

Letter from
Rod in Morwell

hi

To drink, you do it intentionaly and to me if you dink and drive, its murder.  No excuses, if your going to drink, you make the choice to drive or leave your car at home when sober.

I think like whats said here kill take your permit right away. No 4 months till charged, thats if it is drink driving and you are over the limit. Drink driving is no accident. Penalties should be the same as murder

Rod in Morwell

Letter from
John Quinlen

I am very sorry for your loss. Eleven years is not a
long enough sentennce. He would get 20 years if it had
happened in California, probably more because I assume
that moron had priors.

Letter from
Ron King

Dear Peter,

For over ten years as part of my voluntary role in community safety and
crime prevention I have reported dangerous driving to the Traffic
Operations Group of the local Police. The result has been that the
police have set up a speed detection unit and caught a number of
speeding motorists. This has been exclusively in residential streets not

main roads. It appears that
while all manner of people are caught speeding those who are in the
majority often are driving powerful cars, many of which are the so
called "sports" utility. There were also a number of "modified" sedans
and the like.

Unfortunately such exercises of police intervention are only a temporary

and short term lessening of what is a very dangerous and ongoing threat
to our community. I have come to understand that the problem is one of
road culture and the attitudes and practices that it sustains. This road

culture has become embedded in our social fabric and the tragedy of road

trauma will as a consequence continue until this road culture is
changed. A cursory glance through any of the "hot car" magazines
demonstrates this point. The articles are about power, speed and image.
There is a whole industry devoted to increasing the speed and power of
street cars which are then let loose on our streets. Often it is the
immature and aggressive young male (and not so young male) who all to
often feel obliged to "live" the "image" by engaging in highly dangerous

driving.

The major car manufacturers do not help as they have utilized the
imagery of speed and power as a selling point for a number of their car
models. Clearly they are catering to a market that is largely made up of

individuals who feel the need to express themselves through the power
and speed of these vehicles. Let us not be under any illusion as to the
nature of such forms of expression, they are often antisocial and many
are bordering on the homicidal. The fact that they then engage in such
behaviour on our public roads is apparently of little concern to these
car manufacturers or for that matter the publisher of "hot car"
magazines. Add to this dangerous culture of speed and power the lethal
addition of excessive alcohol consumption as an "Aussie" manly trait and

it then only becomes a matter of time before there are tragic
consequences.

The path you are engaged upon is a worthy one and you are right about
the way forward. The only way to extinguish this dangerous and some what

stupid "yobbo" culture of speed, power and drunkenness is to make it too

painful for those who would be so inclined to engage in it, to continue
with it. Severe mandatory penalties for reckless and dangerous driving
should not be merely a consideration. They should be an automatic
response as this is the only way that this lethal "culture" of speed,
power and alcohol can be changed. The day that the "hoon" becomes an
extinct species will be the day our wives or partners and our children
will be safer.

Please accept my sincere condolences for your great loss and the loss to

your family. I know what you are going through. The best of luck with
this endeavour and never, never give up on this task.

Best Regards

Ron King