Our Most Ambitious Road Safety Program

Across regional Western Australia, the greatest driving danger is running off the road or unintentionally moving into the opposite lane and crashing. This type of crash accounts for more than 60 per cent of serious crashes in regional areas and is the largest contributor to death and serious injury on the state’s road network.

Research indicates the majority of these crashes are not due to deliberate violation of traffic laws; rather, they are the result of genuine mistake or driver inattention. Under the Safe System approach, we believe that drivers should not die or suffer serious injury from these mistakes. We are working to provide a more forgiving road environment.

To date, $230 million from existing Road Trauma Trust Account funds has been spent on treating this type of crash. Our new Regional Road Safety Program provides lower cost solutions with safety benefits delivered sooner.

In 2020-21, we will undertake the first year of one of the largest road safety improvement programs seen across WA. The program uses low-cost treatments, including shoulder sealing and installation of audible edge lines (rumble strips), to help prevent run-off road crashes. Audible edge lines ensure drivers are quickly alerted when straying out of their lane, and sealed shoulders give drivers time to correct their course before running off the road. On high volume highways, we will also install wide centre-medians.

This nine-year program, if fully funded through its lifecycle, will see more than 17,000 kilometres of rural roads treated and is a huge step towards preventing deaths or serious injury on our road network.

Year one of the program will see around 1,400 kilometres of roads treated as part of the $100 million package jointly funded by the State Government’s Road Trauma Trust Account and the Australian Government.