No quick fix for road toll: Says Vic Transport Minister..

[parawolf]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/nation...151851279.html

Originally Posted by www.theage.com.au

No quick fix for road toll: minister

* State's roads in dire need of funding, says RACV

Do not expect to see dramatic reductions in the state's road toll over the next couple of years. That is the grim forecast from Victoria's Transport Minister.

Peter Batchelor told The Sunday Age that big falls in the road toll could not be sustained and road-safety initiatives such as safer car designs and increased training for young drivers would take longer to have an effect.

But he warned car manufacturers that the State Government would consider lending its voice to a name-and-shame campaign informing the public which cars had the best and worst safety features, as part of the next wave of road-safety strategies.

Mr Batchelor said additional safety features in cars and influencing buyer attitudes would also take time to bring down the road toll. "The next round of initiatives are going to take longer to implement, so the drops in the road toll in the years ahead are likely to be less dramatic than they have been over the last three years," he said.

The Transport Minister's concerns come as the Government's current road safety campaign, Arrive Alive, approaches completion. Arrive Alive is a five-year strategy to reduce deaths and injuries on Victoria's roads by 20 per cent from 2002 to 2007.

The campaign, which has tackled issues including road design, speeding, drink-driving, fatigue and vehicle safety, had spectacular early results. In 2002 and 2003 the road toll fell by 25 per cent, or 114 deaths.

The drop in Victoria's road deaths during the period was greater than the reduction for the rest of Australia combined.

Victoria's 2003 road toll of 330 was the state's lowest on record.

But in the past two years deaths on Victoria's roads have climbed, creeping up 4 per cent since 2003, and Mr Batchelor said new road safety strategies must be considered.

"We have a policy based on having safer roads, safer cars and safer driving behaviour," he said. "The next big reductions in the road toll will, in fact, come from engineering designs for vehicles."

Mr Batchelor said he would like to see side air-bags and electronic stability programs compulsory, or at least more widely available, in Victorian cars. "This can be achieved two ways: by consumer demand . . . or through changes to the Australian design system," he said.

He said the State Government could take a leading role promoting safer vehicles and he called on the Federal Government to change national design standards.

The other main road safety strategy to be included in the next wave of reforms would be driver education, Mr Batchelor said. Victoria, NSW and the Federal Government are joint partners in a three-year driver-education trial about to begin, involving up to 7000 young drivers. Mr Batchelor also confirmed the State Government would be making changes to P-plate laws this year.