OVER the past 20 years 32 people have been killed and more than 280 people severely injured on the roads included in Mornington Peninsula Shire’s safer speeds trial.
A further 487 people sustained less severe injuries and six of the 32 deaths were in 2019 (“Trial speed limits to stay” The News 28/11/22 contained some incorrect data about the trial).
As a result of the Safer Speeds Trial the shire will ask the Department of Transport to make permanent the speed limits introduced during the trial.
The trial, which began in late 2019, introduced 80 kilometre an hour speed limits to 33 shire-managed, high risk sealed rural roads.
These roads previously had 100kph and 90kph limits and had a significant history of road deaths and injuries, and high crash risk, including narrow lanes and large trees close to the road.
Data collected during the trial shows that in comparison to the two previous years, annual crashes were reduced from 19 a year to six – a 68 per cent total reduction and a net 20 per cent reduction when compared with similar roads in other municipalities where the speed limit hadn’t changed.
There have been no road deaths on any of the 33 roads where speed was reduced since the beginning of the trial.
The mayor Cr Steve Holland said the peninsula’s high rates of road trauma casts a long shadow.
“We experienced the equal highest number of road deaths of Victoria’s 79 municipalities between 2014 to 2021, with 64 deaths and over 1200 serious injuries, leaving devastating and life-long impacts to victims and their families,” he said.
For more information about road improvement projects, visit: mornpen.vic.gov.au/majorprojects or for more information about road safety: mornpen.vic.gov.au/towardszero
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 6 December 2022
