Roadsafe Goulburn Valley executive officer Bill Winters says education is key to making our roads safer.
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This week is National Road Safety Week and Roadsafe GV is shining a light on the importance of not only teaching students in primary and secondary school safe practices when using roads, but existing road users, too.
“We are working within school structures with looking after our mates and safer cycling programs, how safe is your car — which incorporates using the ANCAP (Australasian New Car Assessment Program) rating,” Mr Winters said.
“Anecdotally, within about six to eight weeks of a young person getting their licence, many of them will have a little crash.
“It’s not only young people that are involved in car crashes, it’s also older people.
“A lot of those are driving older cars, which are less safe than the new ones.”
Mr Winters has been a member of Roadsafe GV for 14 years and the organisation’s executive officer for the past two.
He said the emphasis in the early days was on heavy vehicles, but his was more on education at the lower levels with primary and secondary school students.
“My focus is more so about younger kids because having come from Berry Street and the L2P program — that’s what I know, that’s what I’m comfortable with,” Mr Winters, who set up the learn-to-drive program for disadvantaged youth in 2010, said.
National Road Safety Week takes on a different theme each year; this year it is ‘Drive So Others Survive!’.
Driving safely is not just about being aware of other vehicles.
There are pedestrians, cyclists, eBike and scooter riders, people carrying out road works and so on.
“I don’t think a lot of people are operating their motor vehicle very well — they steer it, but they’re not reading the signs and the lines in front of them,” Mr Winters said.
While Mr Winters thinks National Road Safety Week is a good one nationally, he’d like to see one that prioritises different hotspots in the local region.
“We’ve started doing some work with the AFL, GVFL and KDFL leagues and we’ve got an ad in their footy record,” he said.
“It’s about looking after our mates and taking responsibility for each other.
“We, as mates, should ask that question ‘Are you right to drive home?’, a bit like ‘R U OK?’.
“’Is there a better way of getting home?’, ‘Maybe we should be pooling our cars together?’. Maybe the football-netball clubs should be taking more responsibility.”
Mr Winters hopes to be able to go along to sporting clubs and talk to young people about how they can look after each other.
“There’s nothing worse than losing one of your friends from the simple act of being tired or fatigued, or they’ve drunk too much,” he said.
“It’s about being prepared, having a plan in our back pocket, asking ourselves, ‘How are we going to get home safely?’.”
Mr Winters said locals could get involved with National Road Safety Week by learning how to operate their vehicles correctly, understanding the road rules — particularly on the Peter Ross-Edwards Causeway, which he said some drivers referred to as “the raceway between Mooroopna and Shepparton” — and to consider driving attitudes towards one another.
“It’s about courtesy — because really you’re not going to get there any quicker; it’s a waste of fuel, everyone’s heightened with anxiety because there are people cutting each other off and having little races,” he said.
“We normally have one crash a week on the causeway, and that’s far too many.”
Mr Winters pointed to the TAC and VicRoads as the best places road users could find road rules — but said those who were still unsure could go to the police station and ask.
Besides Roadsafe GV, there are several agencies working towards the same goal: Greater Shepparton City Council, Amber Community, Victoria Police and Ambulance Victoria, to name a few.
“We’ve all got the same messages because we want not to have the emergency services that busy,” Mr Winters said.
“The less people going to hospital, the less knocks on the door, the better.
“I don’t how many collisions and lives lost there’s been in Greater Shepparton in the past six to 12 months, but it’s just far too many.”
Mr Winters said if road users didn’t understand, weren’t aware or weren’t comfortable with driving conditions, their first reaction should be to slow down.
“That gives you more time to react,” he said.
“The quicker you go, the quicker you’re going to come to your problem.”
Mr Winters believes the National Road Safety Week campaign should not be limited to one week and that it’s a shame we even have to have it for one week or every week.
“Things have got to improve,” Mr Winters said.
“It’s incumbent on all parts, but particularly the government because they’re our leaders, to show a bit of leadership.
“Fix those roads up and get those educational programs going and support the police a lot more through the justice system; there’s a lot of facets to it.”