❓ The Minister for Road Safety provides an update on the outcomes of a recent road safety round table convened by the government, detailing initiatives and funding allocations aimed at reducing road fatalities and improving safety across WA.
AnsweredQoN 578Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ROAD SAFETY SUMMIT
578. Ms E.J. KELSBIE to the Minister for Road Safety:
I refer to the Cook Labor government's
commitment to improving safety on Western Australian roads. Can the minister
update the house on the outcomes of the round table of road safety experts and
advocates convened by our government last week?
578. Ms E.J. KELSBIE to the Minister for Road Safety:
I refer to the Cook Labor government's
commitment to improving safety on Western Australian roads. Can the minister
update the house on the outcomes of the round table of road safety experts and
advocates convened by our government last week?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question.
It has been great in the last month or two to get out to the regions to talk
road safety, whether it was with traffic wardens in Albany or the local
community council in Newman with the member for Pilbara. I was in Cowaramup to
talk to some of the member for Warren–Blackwood's locals about
slowing down traffic on the main street through the shopping area. It has been
great to see some of the initiatives around our state. As members would be
aware, last week the Premier convened the road safety round table in response
to the concerning spike in deaths on Western Australian roads this year. That brought
together a range of stakeholders and
advocates. So far this year, 128 people have lost their lives on our roads.
Although overall we have seen a steady drop in the number of people
killed or seriously injured on our roads over the last five years, we can take
little comfort from those numbers as one death is too many.
To date, the government has been
working hard on road safety. We have spent almost $1 billion on the regional
road safety program with our commonwealth government friends on audible edge
lines, audible medians and the run-off program. We know that has an enormous
impact on high-speed, high-frequency Main Roads roads. We will also roll out
technology later this year to detect people who are using their mobile phone
while driving or not wearing a seatbelt.
Last year alone, 25 people died because they were not wearing a seatbelt.
Through the Road Safety Commission, this year we will spend $132 million
on road safety initiatives across enforcement, infrastructure—the black
spot programs—community engagement, education, policy, data research
and post-crash responses. But people are still dying on our roads. As I mentioned,
the round table brought together key stakeholders, researchers and safety advocates who brought a number of ideas
and initiatives for the government to consider. We also received a lot
of ideas from the general community in advance of the round table. The
government is now considering all those ideas. There will be some long-term,
medium-term and short-term initiatives that we will be able to do.
As a starting point, just last
Friday, only four days after the round table, I stood with the Minister for
Transport and the Minister for Police to announce a number of new key
initiatives worth $32.5 million. As members know, that money comes from the
road trauma trust account, which pools funds from the cameras on our roads and
at red-light intersections. The new initiatives include a suite of safety
measures across our regional road network, including safety treatments on key
high-speed roads. We also know that some of those roads are not main roads, so
we are starting a program and providing funding of $20 million to allow some of
that work to begin on local government roads that also need that work. That
work and the business case is being done with the support of the Western Australian
Local Government Association and the RAC.
As
part of this multifaceted approach to influencing driver safety, the Minister
for Police also announced that two new breath and drug-testing buses
will be added to the pool of resources to be used by the traffic police for
enforcement across the entire state. Together, we have also announced increased
police traffic enforcement in regional WA, including the new high-visibility
police cars for the traffic patrol to highlight that the police are out there
making sure that people do the right thing, especially on our regional roads.
Lastly, we will increase the collection of data to be more predictive and work
out where crashes might happen in advance. We will make that data available to
local governments to assist them to make their roads safer.
We will have more announcements and
more to say about road safety continually for a long time as this will remain an issue for a long time. The key reasons that
people are killed on our roads are drink-driving, speeding, driver fatigue ,
mobile phone usage, alcohol and not wearing a seatbelt. If all those behaviours
ceased, the conversation would be very different because we would be trending
towards zero deaths on our road. We will continue the conversation and I encourage
everyone to drive safely on the roads for themselves, their families and other
road users.
It has been great in the last month or two to get out to the regions to talk
road safety, whether it was with traffic wardens in Albany or the local
community council in Newman with the member for Pilbara. I was in Cowaramup to
talk to some of the member for Warren–Blackwood's locals about
slowing down traffic on the main street through the shopping area. It has been
great to see some of the initiatives around our state. As members would be
aware, last week the Premier convened the road safety round table in response
to the concerning spike in deaths on Western Australian roads this year. That brought
together a range of stakeholders and
advocates. So far this year, 128 people have lost their lives on our roads.
Although overall we have seen a steady drop in the number of people
killed or seriously injured on our roads over the last five years, we can take
little comfort from those numbers as one death is too many.
To date, the government has been
working hard on road safety. We have spent almost $1 billion on the regional
road safety program with our commonwealth government friends on audible edge
lines, audible medians and the run-off program. We know that has an enormous
impact on high-speed, high-frequency Main Roads roads. We will also roll out
technology later this year to detect people who are using their mobile phone
while driving or not wearing a seatbelt.
Last year alone, 25 people died because they were not wearing a seatbelt.
Through the Road Safety Commission, this year we will spend $132 million
on road safety initiatives across enforcement, infrastructure—the black
spot programs—community engagement, education, policy, data research
and post-crash responses. But people are still dying on our roads. As I mentioned,
the round table brought together key stakeholders, researchers and safety advocates who brought a number of ideas
and initiatives for the government to consider. We also received a lot
of ideas from the general community in advance of the round table. The
government is now considering all those ideas. There will be some long-term,
medium-term and short-term initiatives that we will be able to do.
As a starting point, just last
Friday, only four days after the round table, I stood with the Minister for
Transport and the Minister for Police to announce a number of new key
initiatives worth $32.5 million. As members know, that money comes from the
road trauma trust account, which pools funds from the cameras on our roads and
at red-light intersections. The new initiatives include a suite of safety
measures across our regional road network, including safety treatments on key
high-speed roads. We also know that some of those roads are not main roads, so
we are starting a program and providing funding of $20 million to allow some of
that work to begin on local government roads that also need that work. That
work and the business case is being done with the support of the Western Australian
Local Government Association and the RAC.
As
part of this multifaceted approach to influencing driver safety, the Minister
for Police also announced that two new breath and drug-testing buses
will be added to the pool of resources to be used by the traffic police for
enforcement across the entire state. Together, we have also announced increased
police traffic enforcement in regional WA, including the new high-visibility
police cars for the traffic patrol to highlight that the police are out there
making sure that people do the right thing, especially on our regional roads.
Lastly, we will increase the collection of data to be more predictive and work
out where crashes might happen in advance. We will make that data available to
local governments to assist them to make their roads safer.
We will have more announcements and
more to say about road safety continually for a long time as this will remain an issue for a long time. The key reasons that
people are killed on our roads are drink-driving, speeding, driver fatigue ,
mobile phone usage, alcohol and not wearing a seatbelt. If all those behaviours
ceased, the conversation would be very different because we would be trending
towards zero deaths on our road. We will continue the conversation and I encourage
everyone to drive safely on the roads for themselves, their families and other
road users.
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