• Action Plans

• Safer roads and roadsides
• Safer road users
  • Speed and speeding
  • Drink and drug driving
  • Fatigued driving
  • Driver distraction
  • Older drivers
  • Young drivers
  • Motorcyclists
  • Cyclists
  • Pedestrians
  • Heavy vehicle safety
  • Public transport users
  • Sharing the road
  • Country road users
• Safer vehicles
• Download the First Action Plan: 2008-2010
• Have your say on road safety

Country road users

The effects of road crashes can be especially traumatic for rural communities, from the loss of well-known and valued community members to the impact on local emergency services volunteers who attend accidents. While there has been a reduction in road trauma in regional Victoria over the past five years, country road casualties remain disproportionately more numerous per head of population than in Melbourne. Through a combination of actions, arrive alive 2008-2017 will create a safer road environment in country Victoria.

The First Action Plan will introduce a range of new measures to improve the safety of country road users, including public education campaigns, targeted enforcement and significant levels of investment in roads and roadside safety infrastructure.

 

Area of action	Actions
Public education	Raise awareness of, and create consumer demand for, vehicle safety features such as electronic stability control(ESC) that will reduce run-off-road crashes in country Victoria. Undertake public awareness campaigns to: increase awareness of the drink driving and drug crash risk, even at low levels of consumption encourage consumer take up of personal breath testers that conform to Australian Standards encourage drivers to plan alternatives to driving when they are intending to consume alcohol address the drug related crash risk for at-risk groups, including heavy vehicle operators and young drivers improve public awareness of level crossing safety incorporating new laws and penalties encourage seatbelt use by teenage and young adult passengers, and all rear seat passengers encourage seatbelt and child restraint use, particularly by non-English speaking road users increase motorists’ understanding of the fatigue/crash relationship, and ways to avoid and respond to fatigue educate road users to share the road safely with heavy vehicles. Undertake campaigns targeted to: promote the installation of public breath testing devices that conform to Australian Standards in licensed venues promote the development of OHS policies with regard to drug and alcohol consumption in the workplace or during work related activities; and fatigue avoidance practices. Support programs to encourage responsible service and consumption of alcohol at licensed sporting venues, hotels and clubs. Develop and launch drugs and driving information program and support material.
Enforcement	Improve road user compliance with speed limits by: targeting heavy vehicle speed limiter compliance targeting high crash risk locations though increased use of marked and unmarked police patrols. Increased targeted drink & drug driving  enforcement through: specialised booze buses during high risk times and at high risk locations drug testing during high risk times and at high risk locations a focus on licensed venue compliance with responsible service of alcohol laws commence use of drug testing devices by specialist units from police cars. Use new intelligence based policing strategies to identify licensed venues that are associated with high risk drink driving behaviour, enabling more effective booze bus operations. Develop a roadside test for fatigue. Enforce new high powered vehicle restrictions for young drivers. Improve strategic motorcycle enforcement that is location and season specific, with a focus on high risk motorcycle routes. Work with the heavy vehicle industry to enforce Chain of Responsibility laws and publicise the outcome of successful prosecutions to promote compliance with the laws across the industry. The Chain of Responsibility means that anybody, not just the driver, who has control in a transport operation can be held responsible for breaches of road laws and may be made legally liable.
Infrastructure	Introduce a major infrastructure program, focusing on improving safety along high risk stretches of country roads. The program will focus on improving infrastructure to reduce the incidence of the most common types of crashes in country Victoria: side impact crashes: implement safety improvements at intersections, such as roundabouts, vehicle activated warning signs and conversion of Y intersections to T intersections run-off-road crashes: install roadside barriers, shoulder sealing and rumble lines along road edges, and remove roadside objects (such as trees and poles) head-on crashes: install centre-road rumble lines, centre-road wire rope barriers and overtaking lanes. Implement a Greyspot Program to reduce crash risk at potentially high risk rural intersections.  Deliver the Meeting Our Transport Challenges infrastructure program to progressively upgrade safety at level crossings in provincial Victoria. Measures to improve rail level crossing safety will include: installation of automated advance warning signs at highway and high volume sites installation of rumble strips to alert motorists that they are approaching rail level crossings reduction of speed limits at high risk, high road speed rural rail level crossings improving line of sight at level crossings including vegetation removal trial the use of camera technology to improve compliance and deter unsafe behaviour at level crossings. Deliver targeted infrastructure improvements to reduce crashes caused by unsafe behaviour and to increase safety for specific groups of road users. These improvements will include: improved speed advisory signs and non-distracting roadside signs improved rest stop facilities targeted motorcycle blackspot locations, blacklengths and popular touring routes. Increase the conspicuousness of speed zones. Install electronic speed limit signs at selected sites around schools.
Technology	Implement systems that will allow intelligent speed assist (ISA) technology to function across Victoria. Intelligent speed assist (ISA) automatically warns a driver when they intentionally or inadvertently travel over the speed limit.  Most intelligent speed assist (ISA) systems establish the position of the vehicle on the road, and compares the current speed of the vehicle with the speed limit at that location.  The system then issues audible and visual warnings if the vehicle exceeds this limit.
Legislation	Introduce legislation to streamline detection and enforcement of speed limiter tampering on heavy vehicles. Increase speeding penalties for drivers of heavy vehicles (buses or motor vehicles or combinations of more than 4.5 tonnes) to match the existing penalties for drivers of large heavy vehicles.  In addition, the penalties for drivers of heavy vehicles that disobey traffic control signals (traffic lights, stop signs, give way signs, level crossing controls) will also be increased. Implement national driver fatigue management reform. Increase penalties for level crossing infringements and introduce new offences of speeding to cross ahead of trains when lights and bells are activated and manoeuvring around boom gates that are down. Implement a trial of a driver general road safety awareness course that would remove three demerit points from a driver’s licence. Attendance would be by application when a driver reached eight demerit points; course could only be accessed once every three years. Implement a trial of a scheme that would enable drivers to cancel demerit points for speed offences through voluntary installation of an intelligent speed assist (ISA) system in their vehicle at the driver's own cost.  Fitting of the ISA would not remove future demerit points for speed offences.
Research and data	Conduct a rural road user exposure study to increase understanding of crash risks facing country road users. Trial new technologies to detect fatigue and if proved effective promote their use to vehicle fleet and private vehicle purchasers. Continue the enhanced crash investigation project to identify contributing factors and effective road safety solutions for common crash types. Investigate the introduction of lane departure warning systems, where the driver is alerted to potential run-off-road and fatigue related crashes by in-vehicle warning devices. Pilot innovative solutions to make intersections safer including hazard approach warning systems. Trial a program that requires repeat drink driving offenders, as a condition of re-licensing, to undertake actions that focus on health issues and rehabilitation related to alcohol dependency. Trial an assessment program for drink driving offences over 0.10 BAC.