In state parliament this week, Ms Lovell used the adjournment to highlight the need to improve safety on Victorian roads, highlighting both driver behaviour and the need for maintenance and upgrades of regional roads.
“Road maintenance is the first step to ensuring that Victorians have safe roads to drive on, but as many communities who have suffered tragic losses will tell you, it isn’t enough; safer driving campaigns are essential to safety on our roads, and I have called on the minister to increase both,” she said.
Ms Lovell said many of her constituents believed driver behaviour had declined sharply post-COVID-19.
Research by Moira Shire Council has found evidence to back up this claim.
Ms Lovell is pushing for more effective public information campaigns from the TAC to combat the rising death toll.
“Many previous TAC campaigns have been confronting but also effective, and safety on the roads is not something we can tippy-toe around; the government must increase promotion of safer driving practices,” Ms Lovell said.
Responding to queries by the Courier, a government spokesperson said road conditions were not a primary contributor to crashes, but speed, drink and drug driving, not wearing seat belts and vehicle safety were.
The spokesperson also pointed out that the government was investing in road safety upgrades as part of the $457.57 million Road Safety Program and that the TAC had launched numerous campaigns to change driver behaviour.
As of Sunday, November 12, there had been 258 lives lost on Victorian roads, with the majority being on regional roads.
In the Northern Victoria electorate, 18 lives have been lost in just four accidents, including the horror three-vehicle crash at Strathmerton earlier this year, which took five lives.
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