Victorian number plates to carry a road safety message

16 Oct 2011

MEDIA RELEASE: 16 October 2011

Premier Ted Baillieu announced Victoria's number plates will carry a road safety message.

Addressing the Liberal Party State Council in Bendigo, Mr Baillieu said the new safety message would be selected after extensive consultation.

"What better place to reinforce road safety messages than on number plates," Mr Baillieu said.

"We want to hear from Victorians across the state - drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, children - this is an issue that affects us all.

"It is about getting people thinking and talking about how to improve road safety.

"We know that continual reminders and reinforcing messages are an important part of road safety public education.

"The new number plates will effectively mean hundreds of thousands of reminders to drive safely on our roads every day."

Mr Baillieu invited Victorians to start submitting their ideas from midday Monday 17 October at www.premier.vic.gov.au 

The announcement follows the Premier's launch of the recent regionally-targeted campaign Talk the Toll Down, supported by 60 regional editors and their newspapers around Victoria.

"We must keep the community talking and thinking about road safety. It’s every road user's responsibility, to take care on the roads and through this initiative, we can all talk the toll down in Victoria."

"We've lost 218 lives on our roads already this year. That's many grieving families, friends and colleagues. And that road toll doesn't take into account, thousands of people who have been seriously injured on our roads so far in 2011.

The new number plates are expected to roll out in Victoria next year.