RACV disappointed road safety strategy did not adopt a 50 percent target to reduce fatalities for the coming decade
May 26, 2011
RACV has welcomed the National Road Safety Strategy, but says it is disappointed the document did not adopt a 50 percent target to reduce fatalities for the coming decade.
The motoring group is urging the Federal Government lift the bar by setting a 50 percent target, which would bring it in line with the global ‘Make Roads Safe’ campaign.
In a statement, RACV says it is pleased the strategy recognises the importance of infrastructure investment on roads where mobility is important but is concerned that there has been “no real commitment made to increasing funding to infrastructure development”.
“Improving the safety of road infrastructure should be the preferred option rather than relying on reducing speed limits to improve safety,” the statement says.
“Lower speed limits which are not credible won’t result in significant changes to travel speed and you can’t put a police car or camera everywhere to enforce them.
“Self-countering speeds, as discussed in the NRSS, are the key to getting compliance.”
Many of the suggested additions to the strategy made by the Australian Automobile Association (AAA) have been considered, including assessing crash risk as a means of prioritising investment and the use of intelligent speed adaptation for recidivist speeders.
The strategy also supports mandating safety fitments for new vehicles, extending the use of the Australian New Car Assessment Program to a wider range of vehicles and adopting an evidence-based approach to setting of blood alcohol content levels, rather than artificially reducing the level.