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Rural Roads The Focus Of New Safety Program

The financial cost of road crashes in the Bass Coast Shire during 2000-2004 has been estimated at $86 million.

By Bass Coast Shire - 28th November 2005 - Back to News

The financial cost of road crashes in the Bass Coast Shire during 2000-2004 has been estimated at $86 million. This includes 13 crashes involving fatalities, 175 involving serious injury and 248 involving other injury*.

To help reduce the social and financial burden to the community, Bass Coast Shire Council and VicRoads have embarked on a joint program to proactively identify blackspot and potential blackspot sites on rural roads.

"Most of the Shire’s road accidents occur on rural roads," says Council’s Traffic Engineer, Eihtesham Nabi. "This initiative is a proactive approach to identify the potential risks on rural roads outside the Blackspot Program."

Council and VicRoads have both contributed $20,000 to the Safer Roads and Roadsides Program, which will fund low-cost treatments, such as line painting and signage, in spots thought to be dangerous.

"Although our own staff have already identified some areas that require treatment, we are calling on the community to help us identify other sites on rural roads that are potentially dangerous," said Mr Nabi.

Council staff will inspect each site and start implementing treatments (that can be funded from the available budget) at high-risk sites in early 2006.

"These will be monitored for their effectiveness. It is hoped that if successful the initiative will form the foundation of a larger scale program," explained Mr Nabi.

As the program doesn’t allow for major projects or expenditure, such as the need for a roundabout, identified items will be suggested for Council’s 2006-2007 capital works program.

The Safer Roads and Roadsides Program is a part of VicRoads’ ‘arrive alive’ program, which aims to reduce the road toll by 20 percent by 2007.

*VicRoads Road Crash Information System

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com



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