Page 1825 - Week 06 - Thursday, 9 May 2013
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The government is committed to reducing the number of deaths and life-changing injuries that occur on our roads. In 2011 I released the ACT road safety strategy. The strategy was developed following extensive consultation with key road safety stakeholders, including through a series of road safety roundtables chaired by the former Chief Minister Mr Stanhope. The strategy complements work under the national road safety strategy and is guided by the nationally agreed safe system approach. The safe system approach involves a shared responsibility for road safety and relies on the components of safe speeds, safe roads and roadsides, safe vehicles and, importantly, safe people and safe behaviours.
The safe system approach means that efforts must be made to manage the combined effects of the speeds at which we travel, the safety of the vehicles we use and the level of protection provided by our roads—not only to minimise the number of crashes, but to ensure that when crashes do occur they do not result in death or serious injury.
Improvements in vehicle safety have contributed significantly to reducing road trauma. In the ACT there are approximately 308,000 registered vehicles, including 12,000 motorbikes and about 4,000 heavy vehicles. The average age of the ACT fleet is 9½ years, which means that the average ACT vehicle includes safety features such as crumple zones and airbags. The benefits of safer vehicles on ACT roads are not just confined to drivers and their passengers, with manufacturers designing their vehicles to maximise protection for pedestrians. This is tested by the Australasian new car assessment program, ANCAP, which carries out a specific pedestrian test on new cars sold in Australia and New Zealand. The pedestrian tests are carried out to estimate head and leg injuries to pedestrians struck by a vehicle travelling at a speed of 40 kilometres an hour. These crashes represent about 15 per cent of fatal crashes in Australia and New Zealand, and can be as high as 30 per cent of crashes in urban areas. The 40 kilometre an hour testing speed is significant, as it is the same speed as the speed limits which are being introduced in all of our town centres and is at the higher end of speeds at which a pedestrian can survive the impact of a car.
The difference between a five-star ANCAP-rated vehicle and other lower rated vehicles in terms of pedestrian protection can be dramatic. Five-star vehicles score highly for their protection of pedestrians’ legs around the vehicle’s bumper and in most areas of the bonnet, but in particular those areas where a child or adult is likely to hit their head if they are hit by a car.
Speed is highly implicated in a large proportion of serious casualty crashes, and contributes significantly to the severity of all crashes, in particular those involving vulnerable road users. Research undertaken by Austroads in 2005 confirmed this and showed that as a vulnerable user the chance of surviving a crash with a car decreases rapidly at impact speeds above 30 kilometres an hour.
This evidence alone should be enough to confirm that the government was right to reduce speed limits at town centres where we have significant interactions between motorists, pedestrians and cyclists. Although there continue to be some who are opposed to the speed reduction strategy, the government makes no apology for implementing programs that will help save lives on ACT roads and that are backed by scientific evidence.
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