Yass Valley Council has received over $100,000 in funding from the NRMA ACT Road Safety Trust to increase the reach of a country roads-focused, road safety campaign.
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The inaugural campaign, launched by Yass Valley Council in December 2014 (also funded by the Trust) will now be replicated across a total of nine Local Government Areas: Yass Valley, Queanbeyan, Palerang, Goulburn Mulwaree, Eurobodalla, Snowy River, Tumut, Gundagai and Tumbarumba councils.
Yass Valley Council Road Safety Officer and the project's coordinator, Melissa Weller said that their aim is to deliver a message to both ACT and NSW motorists, to work together as a region and reduce crashes on country roads.
“We are aware of the statistics, we have evidence that suggests motorists are not slowing down and considering the environment they are driving in, and as a joint force (of nine councils) we can have a real impact by getting a common message out over a large geographical area,” she said.
“The campaign doesn’t just tackle the sole issue of speeding, it reminds motorists that country roads present different hazards and motorists need to drive to the conditions of the road–not to speed limits” Ms Weller added.
The 2014 campaign was initiated by Yass Valley Council in response to crash statistics that demonstrated 51 per cent of all crashes in Yass Valley occur on country roads (roads other than State Highways) and that over 20 per cent of motorists who crash in Yass Valley are ACT-licenced. A high percentage of these crashes were ‘off road’ type crash movements - indicating inappropriate speed selection by motorists.
Other Local Government Areas that border the ACT have similar statistics which has motivated the councils to band together and expand the reach of the campaign, which combines three road safety elements -Education, Enforcement and Engineering.
The 2014 campaign was timed to correspond with several NSW Police Highway Patrol operations and also resulted in the design of engineering treatments such as roadside clearing, additional signage and improvements to road delineation.
The project will be delivered under the guidance of a project advisory team comprising representatives from the ACT and Region Chapter of the Australasian College of Road Safety, NSW and ACT Police and the ACT Government.
