Regional Victoria works together to make every journey a safe one

05 Oct 2012

MEDIA RELEASE: 5 October 2012

The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) has appealed to regional Victorians to commit to its vision of making every journey a safe one, on the one year anniversary of the Talk the Toll Down campaign.

This time last year, the Premier Ted Baillieu and the TAC launched the Talk the Toll Down partnership with the editors from 60 regional newspapers.

TAC Acting Chief Executive Officer Tracey Slatter said through their coverage of local road safety issues, the newspapers had shown a clear passion for keeping their local readers safe on the roads.

"The media support for this campaign has kept road safety top of mind and encouraged all regional Victorians to be a part of the combined effort to reduce trauma on Victoria's roads," Ms Slatter said.

"I commend all of the regional newspapers for their commitment to promoting the road safety message through this campaign."

The anniversary comes in a week when there were five fatalities in just 24 hours on Tuesday, all on regional roads.

Ms Slatter said such a tragic day was a reminder of the importance of talking the toll down.

"Our vision at the TAC is to make every journey a safe one," Ms Slatter said.

"We know that over the long term, there has been a significant reduction in the road toll, both deaths and serious injuries, so we know our vision is achievable."

"The TAC will keep working with the newspapers and the Victorian community to educate people about what we can do to make our roads safer - together we can continue to reduce road trauma."

A recent analysis of the campaign has revealed that speeding is the most common issue reported by the regional newspapers (see graph below for analysis)

The results showed that young drivers, drink driving and motorcycle safety were the next most common issues to be reported.

"We know that excessive or inappropriate speed is responsible for more than a third of fatalities in Victoria," Ms Slatter said.

"It's our goal to make speeding unacceptable to all Victorians, in order to see another significant reduction in road trauma. If you know someone who thinks speeding is ok, speak up and let them know that it's not ok to put themselves or others at risk," Ms Slatter said.