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It has been a fortnight of sobering reminders in the NSW Riverina about the enormous responsibility that comes with the privilege of being behind the wheel.
And while we are mentioning a specific part of a specific state, fatal crashes do not discriminate on geographical lines or state borders.
One man dead, another man taken to hospital, last week alone. Two different crashes, on the same stretch of the Sturt Highway between Wagga and the Hume.
Both late at night. Both involving trucks.
Both the week after a man died in a high-speed collision with another car on a major regional arterial road early one weekday morning.
And the latest was just days after two men were killed when their truck collided with a freight train.
Investigations into how each of those crashes came to be are still in the hands of police, but even without knowing the circumstances surrounding them it's enough for one to pause as you put the keys in the ignition next time you get in the car.
Or so you would think.
Because still, in the same week, a man was caught tearing through Wagga's suburban streets at 135 km/h.
One hundred and thirty-five kilometres an hour. It's beyond belief.
That's more than you're allowed to do on an open road just about anywhere in the state.
More than twice as fast as anyone needs to be going in a residential area. Most streets in town are zoned at 50km/h.
Almost as fast as the now-jailed street racers were going before one of them hit the car an man was innocently driving, killing him instantly, on a Wagga street just three-and-a-half years ago.
We all have a duty when we get behind the wheel. To ourselves, to our families, to each other.
There has been nine lives lost to the wider Riverina roads since the first day of 2021. Already 53 people have died on NSW roads this year. It might be three down on the same time last year but still, it's too many.
That nothing more went wrong and no one was hurt as that driver hurtled down suburban streets at 135km/h is a whole other miracle.
He won't be allowed back on the road for six months. That should be plenty of thinking time.
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