The Andrews Labor Government will hold eight road safety community roundtables across Victoria in the coming months to seek views on reducing the number of lives lost and serious injuries on regional roads.
The community roundtables will follow on from last week’s Road Safety Summit at the State Library, where road safety experts and community leaders gathered to discuss what more could be done to address the horror start to the year on Victoria’s roads.
The majority of this year’s increase in road deaths has happened on regional roads, with 86 people killed compared with 47 at the same time last year.
Overall, 143 people have died on the state’s roads this year, compared with 88 at the same time last year – an increase of 63%.
“Country people are dying on their local roads. More than two thirds of people killed on country Victorian roads this year, have died within 30 kilometres of their home,” Minister for Roads, Road Safety and the TAC Jaala Pulford said.
“The roundtables are an opportunity for local communities to have their say on how to prevent the senseless loss of life of regional Victorians on our roads.”
The community roundtables, which will focus on road safety issues affecting regional communities, will be held in Ballarat, Marysville, Shepparton, Portland, Mildura, Sale, Bendigo and Geelong.
Last week’s summit heard from local and international road safety experts that the Government’s $1.4 billion Towards Zero strategy was world-leading in many respects, but the development of a new strategy to commence in 2020 presented opportunities for new initiatives.
Some of the key themes to emerge from the summit included enforcement, speed limits, technology and infrastructure. The roundtables will explore these issues and focus on local issues, as raised by local people.
The Government will consider the ideas from the summit and community roundtables as part of the next road safety strategy which is currently being developed.
“We know regional Victorians are overrepresented in the road toll – that’s why we want to hear from them about how we tackle road trauma,” Minister for Police Lisa Neville said.
