Steve Glassey writes a LinkedIn opinion article on how we need to rethink how we mitigate flood related vehicle fatalities.
This time a young child has fallen victim as the latest vehicle related flood fatality. Sadly, events like this appear all too common in Australia and New Zealand despite pleas from emergency services never to drive in flood water.
The behaviour around driving into flood water is complex and associated fatality mitigation requires a muti-faceted approach. A comprehensive review was undertaken by Ahmed, Hayes & Taylor (2018) which collates a vast number of related studies, and it is a sobering read revealing in the past 20 years, vehicles were involved in 43% of flooding related fatalities. They also reported an increasing trend in four wheel drive vehicles being involved in flood related fatalities.
