THREE people are killed on roads in the City of Maribyrnong every year despite a 27 per cent drop in fatalities in the past five years.
Now community comment is sought on the latest plan designed to curb the road toll, the Draft Road Safety Strategic Plan 2007-2011.
The draft was unveiled to councillors at the Community Access and Strategic Policy meeting last week.
Community groups and concerned residents are being called to comment on the draft that will influence road safety in the City of Maribyrnong for the next four years.
While road-related deaths have been in decline over the past five years, Maribyrnong safety taskforce representative Catherine Cumming said more must be done to improve safety on the city’s roads.
“Despite this drop, we can still do more,” she said.
“The City of Maribyrnong still has an average of three road deaths a year, two people are seriously injured every week, and injuries requiring some form of medical treatment occur almost every single day.”
The details of injuries resulting from road accidents were released as part of the findings of the new road safety plan.
Cr Cumming said the plan was part of council’s serious approach to road safety.
“For the past seven years, we’ve done a lot to improve road safety through road design and traffic calming improvements and driver education,” she said.
The council adopted the first road safety plan in 2000, after analysing trends and patterns in road incidents occurring in the municipality.
Since 2000, the council has implemented a range of programs and initiatives to improve road safety.
Draft plan designer Mark Hennessy said the initiatives put in place by the council have helped to see steady and sustained improvements in road safety.
“This plan is a more proactive view on road safety,” he said.
“It is aimed at reducing crash frequency and severity and making the place safer to move around.”
The new road safety plan builds on the success of the previous one by targeting key risk groups in the community.
According to the data collected for the plan, the groups at highest risk of injury are male and female drivers, cyclists and pedestrians between 18 to 39 years of age, male passengers between 16 to 29 years of age and male motor-cyclists between 18 to 39 years of age.
Despite the figures, Mr Hennessy said all ages were at risk and the new plan aimed to address these risks.
“It is very easy for people to get the impression only bad people get injured, but most people in fatalities are law-abiding citizens. This is about making changes so if people do make mistakes it doesn’t cost them their life,” he said.
The draft plan initiatives include:
THE implementation of safe school travel plans to address the road risks for young people;
SAFETY initiatives for current and future roads and paths;
PROGRAMS targeting parents and carers to protect young children when passengers or walking on or by roads;
ENCOURAGING walking and cycling as alternatives to car travel; and
CONDUCTING education sessions including Older Driver Information Day and Keys Please.
The new collaborative plan targets the high-risk groups with the support of VicRoads and Victoria Police.
Despite the collaborative nature of the plan, Cr Cumming said support was needed from the State Government to help curb the road toll.
“State funding to local councils to implement road safety initiatives continues to reduce, and that’s simply not good enough,” she said.
“Our council will be writing to the Minister for Roads and Ports to request more state funding for road safety to help us reduce the number of serious accidents on local roads.”
The plan is available for community comment until 31 July at Maribyrnong libraries, the council customer service and on the council website www.maribyrnong.vic.gov.au.
