Residents from Bendigo 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 191 deaths, compared with 133 at the same time last year, with the majority of these deaths occurring on regional roads, where 105 people have died.
So far this year, 29 people have died on the roads in the Bendigo region including, Greater Bendigo, Campaspe, Central Goldfields, Gannawarra, Horsham, Loddon, Macedon Ranges, Mount Alexander, Mitchell, Northern Grampians, Strathbogie and Buloke.
Last year, 27 people died on roads in these regions and a further 70 people were seriously injured.
Bendigo Forum will be attended by road safety experts and 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 six of the eight forums were held in Ballarat, Marysville, Shepparton, Sale and Portland since early July, 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 Labor Government will consider the ideas from the summit and forums as part of the development of the next Victorian road safety strategy.
For more information visit tac.vic.gov.au/regional-road-safety-forum
Quotes attributable to Minister for Roads, Road Safety and TAC, Jaala Pulford
“It has been a tragic year on Victorian roads and sadly the Bendigo region hasn’t been spared with too many families mourning the loss of a loved one.”
“It continues to be regional roads that are overrepresented and heartbreakingly it is mostly country people dying close to home.”
Quote attributable to Member for Bendigo East Jacinta Allan
“This forum will give us the chance to work with the Bendigo community as we look at the reasons behind the disproportionate number of country road deaths and how to prevent this senseless loss of life.”
Quote attributable to Member for Bendigo West Maree Edwards
“We want to hear from the Bendigo community about what more can be done to stop people dying or being seriously injured on the roads they drive every day.”
Reviewed 19 August 2020