By XAVIER SMERDON
DRAMATIC decreases in the number of people dying on Western Suburbs’ roads show that they are the safest they have been in several years.
The latest TAC road safety statistics were released last week showing that all but one suburb in the West had seen a drop in road related fatalities.
The figures, which compare the 12 months to October this year, indicated that Melton had seen a reduction in fatalities of 50 per cent from 2012 to 2013.
Wyndham had the biggest decrease after two horror years where nine people were killed consecutively in 2011 and 2012, to see a decrease of 56 per cent.
When comparing this year to 2011 the drop is even more dramatic at 63 per cent.
Brimbank and Maribyrnong also had comparatively good years, with drops of 44 per cent and 25 per cent respectively.
The only suburb where the number of road deaths increased was Hobsons Bay, which went from just one in 2011 to three this year.
Chairman of RoadSafe Westgate, which advocates for safer roads and driver education in the West, Jim Giddings, told Star a higher police presence was behind the shift.
“Two things have contributed to this reduction and they are a greater community awareness of issues like speeding and hooning, and a greater presence from the police,” Mr Giddings said.
“There is no doubt that when we have a more visible police presence that people do slow down.”
Mr Giddings said that the message of road safety was slowly sinking in to young drivers.
“Slowly but surely we are seeing results, but it’s a lot of hard work,” he said.
“We need to continually work at it to bring the wider community on board and to maintain their interest.”
Mr Giddings said the West had a long way to go before it would be able to shake its image as a hoon and dangerous driving hotspot.
“I don’t want to paint a bleak picture of the West, but when you look at the impoundment figures, a higher proportion of those are in the Western Suburbs, and particularly Melton,” he said.
“They are not going down, but what that tells us is that we have more police on our roads and they are catching more dangerous drivers.
“Hoon activity is continuing and we need to be more than vigilant.”
Hoon drivers can be reported to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
