Member for Western Victoria, Gayle Tierney today announced $1.6 million in funding for a road safety improvement project on Cobden-Terang Road west of Cobden.
The funding will be used to seal the road shoulder, install safety barriers, paint edge lines, relocate a power pole and remove some roadside hazards. These works are planned to improve safety and reduce run off road crashes.
The project is part of the Bracks Government’s $172.3 million arrive alive! Safer Roads Program, funded by the TAC. The Safer Roads Program is central to the Government’s ongoing commitment to improving safety and conditions for road users across Victoria.
Ms Tierney said this stretch of road had a history of run off road crashes.
“Run off the road crashes are where a motorist loses control of their vehicle and runs off the road into trees and other objects on the roadside,” Ms Tierney said.
“They represent a substantial proportion of the road toll, particularly in rural areas.
“They are the silent killers on our regional roads and in the past five years 48 per cent of fatal, and 46 per cent of serious injury crashes, have involved vehicles running off the road.
“In the last five years there has been one fatal crash on this section of Cobden-Terang Road, and another five crashes where people have been injured.”
The arrive alive! Safer Roads Infrastructure Program is a Victorian Government initiative funded by the Transport Accident Commission to reduce Victoria’s road toll.
The program targets locations across Victoria with an emphasis on rural and outer metropolitan areas where there is a disproportionately higher rate of serious injury and fatality crashes.
These works are part of a $597 million commitment from the State Government to improve road safety infrastructure made in the Meeting Our Transport Challenges Plan.
Ms Tierney said the Bracks Government’s arrive alive! road safety strategy was working.
“Victoria has made significant gains in road safety since the strategy was launched in 2002,” she said.
“We have recorded the four lowest road tolls over the past four years, treated over 1500 accident blackspots and invested more than half a billion dollars on road safety specific infrastructure improvements.
“Victoria leads the way in Australia in reducing road trauma and we want to continue to improve road safety for all Victorians.”
