News

Roads | June 27, 2019

Western Victorians views on road safety ignored

The Nationals Member for Lowan, Emma Kealy has slammed the Andrews Labor Government for ignoring the views of western Victorian residents about local road safety issues.

VicRoads is holding road safety community roundtables across Victoria in the coming months but none have been scheduled for western Victoria which has the worst roads in the state.

The community roundtables follow a recent Road Safety Summit in Melbourne where road safety experts and community leaders, but very few everyday road users, gathered to discuss what could be done to address the horror start to the year on Victoria’s roads.

“I am aware that community roundtables are being held around Victoria to seek the views of regional communities on how the number of lives lost and serious injuries on regional roads can be reduced,” Ms Kealy said.

“But apparently the views of Lowan residents don’t count as there are no community roundtables scheduled for anywhere west of Ballarat.

“Once again Labor is showing their contempt for residents in our fantastic part of Victoria and it simply isn’t good enough.

“Already this year there has been a 78% increase in the number of people who have lost their lives on our country roads.

“These aren’t just statistics. They are mums and dads, sons and daughters, and sisters and brothers who are not coming home to their families, leaving them with a lifetime of trauma.

“Yet despite our growing road safety crisis, Labor has:

• Slashed the number of roadside breath tests by 400,000 in 2019-2020;
• Failed to increase the number of drug tests conducted, despite evidence which suggests that drugs are a large contributor to the road toll;
• Cut $47.2 million from the existing Road Safety Strategy 2013-2022 over the past year.

“A life lost in Lowan is just as important as a life lost in Melbourne and Daniel Andrews needs to recognise this fact – not treat our residents as second class citizens.

“I am calling on Labor to add a community roundtable meeting in Horsham and Hamilton to the schedule to enable our local residents to tell VicRoads what we think about the true state of our roads and opportunities to address this growing crisis.”