❓ Opposition questions the government's road safety efforts following a recent summit and rising fatalities. The Premier responds by outlining ongoing initiatives and expressing commitment to reducing road deaths.
AnsweredQoN 639Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ROAD SAFETY
639. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Premier:
It has now been over two weeks since
the road safety summit—an event the opposition was excluded from.
Sadly, fatalities on Western Australian
roads continue to climb, including the tragic death of a 17-year-old last
night. When will this government stop talking about road safety and
actually take meaningful action to save lives on our roads?
639. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Premier:
It has now been over two weeks since
the road safety summit—an event the opposition was excluded from.
Sadly, fatalities on Western Australian
roads continue to climb, including the tragic death of a 17-year-old last
night. When will this government stop talking about road safety and
actually take meaningful action to save lives on our roads?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question.
I think that it is an issue that concerns us all in the community. We know that
the number of fatalities on our road system is never low enough. We know that
any fatality is a tragedy for the person and their families. It destroys lives.
It impacts on first responders who have to present to the situation. Any
fatality on our roads is a fatality too many. That is why we continue to do so
much as a government to make sure that we put downward pressure on road
fatalities in our community. Despite all the work we have done—literally thousands of kilometres in road upgrades to
improve safety on our regional roads and many hundreds of thousands of
dollars spent on education campaigns and the important work that we continue to
do around regulating our motor vehicle users—we see the road toll
stubbornly edge upwards.
On the back of what is looking like
a particularly bad year, I called the road safety round table, because I think that governments are at their best when they are
listening, and, on this issue, I think that we should listen to all ideas and make sure that we hear from everyone, particularly people like Daniel
Campo, who lost his son just two months ago. His son had so much promise and so
much to look forward to. His life was lost in the blink of an eye because he
got into a car that his father believes was unsafe and was driven in an erratic
fashion and in a way that was unsafe. Nick
Campo will never be back with us, and that is a horrible thing to contemplate.
But all these lives lost are incredibly sad. We also heard from Tayla
Stone, who was at the round table as well. She will have a disability for the
rest of her life because of injuries acquired through a motor vehicle accident.
That is an incredible burden that she now has to bear because of a blink-of-an-eye
incident. In many cases, this is not something that we have control over; it is
because we are in a car. We might be a passenger.
Following
the road safety round table, the Ministers for Transport and Road Safety went
out with a series of proactive initiatives to make sure that we continue
to do what we can to drive down the rate of fatalities on our roads. That
included an extensive campaign to undertake upgrades to our local government
regional high-speed roads right across regional Western Australia. The one
thing I think we all agree upon is that the work we have done across 8 000 kilometres
of regional roads to broaden and harden shoulders and install audible edging
has been one of the key features that people say saves lives and stops
accidents. Extending that program now to regional roads within local government
authorities is obviously an incredibly important thing. We are also upgrading
and making more visible the police patrols on our roads with new decals that
make them stand out to drive a message to all our road users that the police
are on the roads, looking out for unlawful behaviour, and will do what they can
to stop people speeding or driving unsafely.
Finally, the other initiative that
we are launching is, of course, further education campaigns. The one statistic
that drives me to despair is that in 2023,
26 people who lost their lives in vehicle accidents were not wearing a seatbelt— 26 people. I remember, because, unfortunately, I am
old enough to remember, when we made seatbelts compulsory . I would have
thought it is just common sense that everyone would do this, but sadly they do
not, so we need to continue to make sure that we educate the community. We need
to make sure that we are making good decisions on our roads. That includes not being distracted by mobile phones. Do
not drive tired. Do not drive under the influence of alcohol or other
drugs. People should make sure they always wear a seatbelt. They should drive
to the conditions and make sure that they get home safely.
We have made some announcements as a
result of our road safety round table. Other ideas came out, which I have asked
the Minister for Road Safety to consider, and we are looking at those ideas at
the moment to see what further steps we can take, but, of course, just a matter
of days after the road safety round table, we went out and made these
announcements. I am really pleased with those announcements. They are a good
next step. Of course, we must do everything we can, not only as a government,
but as a community, to drive down the incidence of fatalities on our roads.
I think that it is an issue that concerns us all in the community. We know that
the number of fatalities on our road system is never low enough. We know that
any fatality is a tragedy for the person and their families. It destroys lives.
It impacts on first responders who have to present to the situation. Any
fatality on our roads is a fatality too many. That is why we continue to do so
much as a government to make sure that we put downward pressure on road
fatalities in our community. Despite all the work we have done—literally thousands of kilometres in road upgrades to
improve safety on our regional roads and many hundreds of thousands of
dollars spent on education campaigns and the important work that we continue to
do around regulating our motor vehicle users—we see the road toll
stubbornly edge upwards.
On the back of what is looking like
a particularly bad year, I called the road safety round table, because I think that governments are at their best when they are
listening, and, on this issue, I think that we should listen to all ideas and make sure that we hear from everyone, particularly people like Daniel
Campo, who lost his son just two months ago. His son had so much promise and so
much to look forward to. His life was lost in the blink of an eye because he
got into a car that his father believes was unsafe and was driven in an erratic
fashion and in a way that was unsafe. Nick
Campo will never be back with us, and that is a horrible thing to contemplate.
But all these lives lost are incredibly sad. We also heard from Tayla
Stone, who was at the round table as well. She will have a disability for the
rest of her life because of injuries acquired through a motor vehicle accident.
That is an incredible burden that she now has to bear because of a blink-of-an-eye
incident. In many cases, this is not something that we have control over; it is
because we are in a car. We might be a passenger.
Following
the road safety round table, the Ministers for Transport and Road Safety went
out with a series of proactive initiatives to make sure that we continue
to do what we can to drive down the rate of fatalities on our roads. That
included an extensive campaign to undertake upgrades to our local government
regional high-speed roads right across regional Western Australia. The one
thing I think we all agree upon is that the work we have done across 8 000 kilometres
of regional roads to broaden and harden shoulders and install audible edging
has been one of the key features that people say saves lives and stops
accidents. Extending that program now to regional roads within local government
authorities is obviously an incredibly important thing. We are also upgrading
and making more visible the police patrols on our roads with new decals that
make them stand out to drive a message to all our road users that the police
are on the roads, looking out for unlawful behaviour, and will do what they can
to stop people speeding or driving unsafely.
Finally, the other initiative that
we are launching is, of course, further education campaigns. The one statistic
that drives me to despair is that in 2023,
26 people who lost their lives in vehicle accidents were not wearing a seatbelt— 26 people. I remember, because, unfortunately, I am
old enough to remember, when we made seatbelts compulsory . I would have
thought it is just common sense that everyone would do this, but sadly they do
not, so we need to continue to make sure that we educate the community. We need
to make sure that we are making good decisions on our roads. That includes not being distracted by mobile phones. Do
not drive tired. Do not drive under the influence of alcohol or other
drugs. People should make sure they always wear a seatbelt. They should drive
to the conditions and make sure that they get home safely.
We have made some announcements as a
result of our road safety round table. Other ideas came out, which I have asked
the Minister for Road Safety to consider, and we are looking at those ideas at
the moment to see what further steps we can take, but, of course, just a matter
of days after the road safety round table, we went out and made these
announcements. I am really pleased with those announcements. They are a good
next step. Of course, we must do everything we can, not only as a government,
but as a community, to drive down the incidence of fatalities on our roads.
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