Page 3257 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 22 August 2012
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Flashing lights remind drivers of the presence of a school in the area and therefore the presence of students as pedestrians. It is unfortunate that drivers can sometimes choose to ignore road signs around schools especially when trials have shown that drivers reduce speed significantly when flashing lights operate.
The Canberra Liberals value the safety of our city’s school children and we want them to be as safe as possible. I hope the Assembly takes on the advice of the Australian Road Research Board, the NRMA, the New South Wales Commissioner for Children and Young People, the Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations of New South Wales, school principals and many others and supports this motion.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health and Minister for Territory and Municipal Services) (8.29): I move:
Omit all words after “notes”, substitute:
“(a) the importance of continuing to improve pedestrian safety at schools and in the wider community; and
(b) the current policy in the ACT regarding school speed zones, which includes the use of 40 kilometre per hour speed limits between 8 am and 4 pm on school days; and
(2) agrees to adopt the principle of evidence-based decision-making in relation to local services such as road safety, based on expert assessment and agreed criteria in decisions to prioritise municipal services.”.
I am pleased to speak to this motion. The ACT has a good road safety record in comparison to other parts of Australia. We have the benefit of an established and well-designed road system, a general urban environment and a small, well-defined geographic area. Despite this, there is no room for complacency. In the last five years from 2007 to 2011 an average of 13 people were killed and 641 people were injured on ACT roads each year.
In November last year the ACT government released its ACT road safety strategy 2011-20. The strategy, which provides a framework for addressing road safety issues in the territory, is supported by a list of specific action items in the ACT road safety action plan. These documents complement work at the national level under the national road safety strategy and provide an integrated approach to improving road safety using a range of education, encouragement, engineering, enforcement, evaluation and support measures.
Road safety engineering measures, while part of the picture, are not a panacea of solving all problems. A strategic goal of the road safety strategy is to have an ACT community that shares the responsibility for road safety. There is little point in having traffic control arrangements on our roads—this includes school zone requirements with or without flashing lights—if drivers do not take responsibility for their own behaviour.
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