Residents from Mildura and the surrounding region will share their ideas and thoughts on how to make local roads safer at tonight’s regional road safety forum.
It has been a devastating year to date on Victoria’s roads, with 202 deaths, compared with 147 at the same time last year. The majority of fatalities are happening on regional roads, where 113 people have died.
The Mildura region hasn’t been spared from this year’s tragic increase in road deaths, having already seen more than double the number of lives lost compared with the 2018 calendar year.
So far this year, 14 people have died on the roads in the Mildura region including, Mildura, Buloke, Gannawarra, Hindmarsh, Swan Hill and Yarriambiack.
Last year, 6 people died on roads in these regions and a further 16 people were seriously injured.
Tonight’s forum, at the Mildura Grand, will be attended by road safety experts and state and local government representatives, but has been designed to ensure all attendees will have ample opportunity to have their say.
In addition to looking at local and regional road safety issues raised by attendees, the forums will invite the community to comment on the four areas that make up the Andrews Labor Government’s Towards Zero strategy: safer people, roads, vehicles and speeds.
The first seven of the eight forums were held across Victoria, with hundreds of community members sharing the experiences and knowledge of their local roads.
The forums follow the Melbourne Road Safety Summit in May, where road safety experts and community leaders gathered to discuss what more could be done to address the horror start to the year on Victoria’s roads.
The Government will consider the ideas from the summit and forums as part of the development of the next Victorian road safety strategy.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Roads, Road Safety and TAC, Jaala Pulford:
“We are seeing a tragic year unfold on Victorian roads and sadly the Mildura region has seen more than double the amount of lives lost so far this year compared with last year.”
“It continues to be regional roads that are overrepresented with too many families in country Victoria mourning the loss of a loves one and, predominantly, people are dying on their local roads.”
Quote attributable to Member for Northern Victorian Mark Gepp
“This forum will give us the chance to work with the Mildura community as we look at the reasons behind the disproportionate number of country road deaths and how to prevent this senseless loss of life.”
Reviewed 19 August 2020