By Taylah Eastwell
Victoria recorded its lowest ever road toll in 2020, but that is of no solace to more than 200 Victorian families who have started the New Year without a loved one.
Despite reduced traffic throughout the year due to Covid-19 restrictions, 213 people still lost their lives on Victorian roads over the past year. The number reduced significantly from 265 deaths the previous year, however police have warned the lower figures should provide no comfort.
Over half of the state’s deaths occurred on regional roads, with the 126 lives taken on country roads mostly related to excessive speed and fatigue.
Three people have already lost their lives on Victorian roads in the first five days of 2021.
A man lost his life when his car struck a tree in Kilsyth on Monday 4 January.
It is believed the vehicle was travelling on Mount Dandenong Road when it left the roadway and struck the tree just after 8.30pm.
Another crash at Millgrove just 22 hours earlier sent six people in their twenties to hospital, two in a critical condition.
Reflecting on 2020, enforcement agencies reported a spike in high-range speeding during Covid lockdowns, while drink and drug driving, illegal phone use, fatigue and not wearing seatbelts were also significant contributors to road deaths.
Around 68 percent of drivers and passengers killed last year were in vehicles that were more than 10 years old.
Cyclist deaths were the only category that increased, jumping from 11 deaths in 2019 to 13 deaths in 2020.
The Labor Government recently launched its new Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030, with a focus on delivering solutions to the major contributing factors to road trauma as well as proactively making our roads safer for those where their workplace is the road, and our more vulnerable road users.
The Strategy will develop programs to stop drink drivers in their tracks and prevent reoffending, getting young and older drivers into safer cars and deploying innovative high-tech cameras across Victoria to hold distracted drivers to account.
The Government’s mission is to halve road deaths by 2030, building on initiatives like road infrastructure upgrades that have proven effective at reducing road trauma on some of our highest-risk regional roads.
Minister for Roads and Road Safety Ben Carroll said “even one life lost on Victorian roads is too many, let alone more than 200 families starting 2021 in grief.”
“We all have to do more – and we’ve released an ambitious new Road Safety Strategy to make sure all Victorians are safe on our roads and reduce the risky behaviour that we know causes trauma,” he said.
Minister for Police Lisa Neville said a creating a strong culture of road safety requires a community effort.
“Each and every Victorian has a responsibility to drive safely, and it’s a responsibility we all need to take seriously,” she said.
