More pressure on drivers to cut road toll

NARRE Warren South MP Judith Graley has welcomed the recent announcement of the Government’s new Arrive Alive Road Safety Strategy.
“Every death or serious injury on the road is a tragedy,” Ms Graley said.
“Here in Narre Warren South, we have many families grieving the loss, or serious injury, of a loved one in a traffic accident.
“These measures will help make our roads safer for our families.”
The new strategy includes:
*A tough new focus on drink driving, with drivers who record a blood alcohol level of 0.10 immediately taken off the road, rather than waiting until they go to court;
*A new program to give drivers the chance to redeem demerit points by undertaking a comprehensive road safety program;
*Introducing a peer passenger restriction on first-year probationary drivers. From 1 July, P-platers will no longer be able to carry more than one peer passenger (aged between 16 and 21) for the first year of their licence at all hours;
*Mandating the instalment of electronic stability control (ESC) in all new cars built after 31 December 2010 (in the absence of an equivalent national requirement);
*Mandating the instalment of head protection technology, such as side-curtain airbags in all new cars built after 31 December by 2011 (in the absence of an equivalent national requirement);
*Showing leadership by introducing ESC and head protection technology to the Government fleet over the next three years, thereby giving manufacturers an incentive to deploy ESC to all cars;
*Increased funding to the Safer Roads Improvements Program, with $230 million over three years, which includes $16 million over two years for the greyspot program to upgrade locations identified as potential crash sites.
The new 10-year strategy aims to reduce the road toll and the number of serious injuries by 30 per cent by 2017.
It follows on from the first Arrive Alive initiative, which saw the road toll decrease by 580 between 2001 and 2007.
“These measures, aimed at the safety of our roads, vehicles and driver behaviour, reaffirm the Government’s strong commitment to ensuring families are not ‘touched by the road toll,” Ms Graley said.