❓ Mr. Johnson questions the Minister for Police and Road Safety about the rising road toll, funding allocation, and proposes increasing the strategic traffic enforcement group. The Minister defends the government's road safety initiatives and funding allocation.
AnsweredQoN 938Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ROAD TOLL — STRATEGIC TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT
GROUP
938. Mr R.F. JOHNSON to the Minister for
Police; Road Safety:
Mr Speaker —
Mr
J.M. Francis : Valedictory!
Mr
R.F. JOHNSON : That interjection may be your valedictory, sunshine!
The
SPEAKER : Member for Hillarys, I gave you the call. Just ask a question.
Mr
R.F. JOHNSON : Thank you, Mr Speaker. I got a rude interjection from the
member for Jandakot.
The
SPEAKER : I never heard it, so ask the question through the Chair.
Mr
R.F. JOHNSON : My question is to the Minister for Police; Road Safety. I am
sure the minister is aware that the road toll to date is higher than last year's
total of 161 deaths.
(1) Does the
minister accept that she has much more funding available to her than was the
case with any previous minister—namely, about $130 million per year?
(2) Does the
minister accept that her road safety strategy is not working and that there is
still around $100 million sitting idle in the road trauma trust account while
people are dying on our roads?
(3) Will the
minister now accept my proposal, which has been endorsed by the WA Police Union
and the RAC, to increase the strategic traffic enforcement group by 400 � police officers, funded out of the road trauma
trust account, thereby having a much bigger presence on our roads, which would save
lives; and, if not, why not?
GROUP
938. Mr R.F. JOHNSON to the Minister for
Police; Road Safety:
Mr Speaker —
Mr
J.M. Francis : Valedictory!
Mr
R.F. JOHNSON : That interjection may be your valedictory, sunshine!
The
SPEAKER : Member for Hillarys, I gave you the call. Just ask a question.
Mr
R.F. JOHNSON : Thank you, Mr Speaker. I got a rude interjection from the
member for Jandakot.
The
SPEAKER : I never heard it, so ask the question through the Chair.
Mr
R.F. JOHNSON : My question is to the Minister for Police; Road Safety. I am
sure the minister is aware that the road toll to date is higher than last year's
total of 161 deaths.
(1) Does the
minister accept that she has much more funding available to her than was the
case with any previous minister—namely, about $130 million per year?
(2) Does the
minister accept that her road safety strategy is not working and that there is
still around $100 million sitting idle in the road trauma trust account while
people are dying on our roads?
(3) Will the
minister now accept my proposal, which has been endorsed by the WA Police Union
and the RAC, to increase the strategic traffic enforcement group by 400 � police officers, funded out of the road trauma
trust account, thereby having a much bigger presence on our roads, which would save
lives; and, if not, why not?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Hillarys for
this question on road safety.
(1)–(3) It
is true—the road toll this year is appalling. As members in this house
will know, having lost a family member to a road crash, I have an intimate
understanding of the trauma that that inflicts on a family for many years post
an accident or a crash that takes a life or indeed causes a serious injury.
What are we doing about it? This year we have allocated a record $155 million
from the road trauma trust account towards road safety initiatives. That is
going towards addressing the major causes of road crashes, fatalities and
serious injuries in the state. The funding is going, for instance, to regional
areas—putting rumble strips in and sealing the shoulders on regional
roads to try to prevent run‑off‑road crashes. I am expanding the
fleet of red‑light and speed cameras from 30 to 90 because we know that
where we put those red‑light cameras in at intersections, we get a 64 per
cent reduction in crashes. We know they work. That is why we are expanding the
camera fleet. We are putting $4 million this year into education campaigns
targeting the key target groups that we need to get to; that we know are
represented in our road stats. They are younger men who are risk‑takers.
They are people who routinely speed. In relation to seatbelts, we have
education programs going out targeting regional areas in particular where we
have low compliance with seatbelts.
We
have recommendations from my wheatbelt highway safety review and my motorcycle
safety review that we are in the process of implementing. We are performing
intersection upgrades wherever we can in metropolitan areas. We will continue
with our commitment to the Towards Zero strategy, which aims to reduce
fatalities and serious injuries on our roads by 40 per cent by the year 2020. I
am not happy with the road toll this year. No‑one can be happy with it,
because one death is too many, but with $155 million going into road safety
initiatives, the government is doing everything it can based on the expert
advice it receives from road safety experts as to what it needs to do to reduce
the road toll.
this question on road safety.
(1)–(3) It
is true—the road toll this year is appalling. As members in this house
will know, having lost a family member to a road crash, I have an intimate
understanding of the trauma that that inflicts on a family for many years post
an accident or a crash that takes a life or indeed causes a serious injury.
What are we doing about it? This year we have allocated a record $155 million
from the road trauma trust account towards road safety initiatives. That is
going towards addressing the major causes of road crashes, fatalities and
serious injuries in the state. The funding is going, for instance, to regional
areas—putting rumble strips in and sealing the shoulders on regional
roads to try to prevent run‑off‑road crashes. I am expanding the
fleet of red‑light and speed cameras from 30 to 90 because we know that
where we put those red‑light cameras in at intersections, we get a 64 per
cent reduction in crashes. We know they work. That is why we are expanding the
camera fleet. We are putting $4 million this year into education campaigns
targeting the key target groups that we need to get to; that we know are
represented in our road stats. They are younger men who are risk‑takers.
They are people who routinely speed. In relation to seatbelts, we have
education programs going out targeting regional areas in particular where we
have low compliance with seatbelts.
We
have recommendations from my wheatbelt highway safety review and my motorcycle
safety review that we are in the process of implementing. We are performing
intersection upgrades wherever we can in metropolitan areas. We will continue
with our commitment to the Towards Zero strategy, which aims to reduce
fatalities and serious injuries on our roads by 40 per cent by the year 2020. I
am not happy with the road toll this year. No‑one can be happy with it,
because one death is too many, but with $155 million going into road safety
initiatives, the government is doing everything it can based on the expert
advice it receives from road safety experts as to what it needs to do to reduce
the road toll.
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