More Emphasis Needed on Safer Roads.

The RACQ would like to thank the ACRS for inviting comments on suggested directions for the National Road Safety Strategy 2011 – 2020. The Club believes that the safe system approach, focussing on having safer drivers in safer vehicles on safer roads, from the 2001 – 2010 strategy needs to be retained in the next strategy.
More emphasis, however, needs to be placed on safer roads. The 2001 – 2010 strategy (Australian Transport Council 2000, p6) identified that “Improving the safety of roads is the single most significant achievable factor in reducing road trauma.” It was estimated that improving the safety of roads could contribute roughly half of the targeted 40% reduction in Australia’s road crash fatality rate per 100,000 population (Australian Transport Council 2000, p19).