Tabled in Parliament yesterday by Road Safety Minister Rob Johnson, the strategy seeks to have zero trauma on WA roads by applying the safe system approach of safe speeds, safe road use, safe vehicles and safe roads.

WA Local Government Association President Cr Bill Mitchell said Local Government had already endorsed the safe system approach which included their fleet purchasing decisions, Roadwise education program with the Office of Road Safety and work with Main Roads in establishing appropriate speed limits.

Cr Mitchell said however a core component of the safe system approach was ensuring roads were constructed and maintained to standards that helped lessen the number of crashes and trauma resulting from crashes.

“Road infrastructure improvements are critical to implementing a key cornerstone of safe system approach in ensuring that there is a more forgiving road environment in the event of a crash,” Cr Mitchell said.
.
“Local Governments manage 72 per cent of all roads in WA so if there are to be improvements to the safety of roads the overwhelming responsibility will fall to Council works.

“In 2006-2007 Local Governments invested $451million dollars on roads however there is an annual shortfall of funding of $112m just to preserve the network at its current condition.

“If making roads safer is to be a cornerstone of the new Towards Zero strategy then there needs to be an urgent redress of road funding to Local Government.”

The Local Government Road Asset and Expenditure Report illustrates that many Local Governments, in particular Councils in rural and regional WA, are already spending significant funding, in some cases up to 80 per cent of their expenditure, on their road network.

“Towards Zero is a positive step for WA in that we no longer will accept that deaths and serious injuries on our roads are inevitable,” Cr Mitchell said.
 
“WALGA looks forward to working with Main Roads and the Office of Road Safety, the Road Safety Council partner agencies and the WA community to implement the new WA road safety strategy.

“The Minister is to be congratulated for steering the State towards zero which is ultimately a new more positive direction for road safety in WA”.

Ends