VICTORIA'S road toll is 63 per cent higher than at the same time last year, so what can be done about it?
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For the State Government and Transport Accident Commission, it's a balancing act of doing what's worked, but needing to do more as it continues it's Towards Zero program.
Ballarat-based MP Jaala Pulford, who is newly into the role of Roads Minister, said it was an ongoing battle to get the messaging right, but there were plenty of common denominators involved in road trauma.
"It's a real challenge and what's made more challenging is the strategy we have in place is the same strategy from last year where we recorded our lowest ever road toll since records began," she said.
"At the end of the day, we know the causes of road trauma. Speed, fatigue, distraction, drugs and alcohol are overwhelmingly the reasons."
Ms Pulford said she was constantly shattered at the almost daily fatalities around the state.
"There is a horrific over representation in country Victoria in the number of lives lost on Victorian roads," she said.
"We see this largely because the stakes are inherently higher. If people are travelling at 100km/h and they hit something, a tree, a bridge, another car, it's incredibly unlikely you will survive.
"I think we've got a real job to continually remind people of that."
The government's current strategy is a four year, $1.4 billion investment. This include wire barriers, new roundabouts and upgrades to intersections.
Next week also marks National Road Safety Week where a number of initiatives will be highlighted and road victims commemorations held.
TAC Lead Director Road Safety Samantha Cockfield said while there was no doubt this year had been one of box, the overall trends were heading down.
"The most dangerous thing you can do is not have your eyes on the road," Ms Cockfield said.
"People think it's just two seconds, but it takes you another two or three seconds to re-focus. Five second off the road, at 100km an hour, it's about 100m, it's long way to travel blind."
"When I started in road safety 20 years ago, we didn't know what you can survive. Now research is showing that a head on crash if you're travelling at more than 70km/h you're unlikely to live. In a side impact with a tree, anything more than 30km/h can be fatal.
"The biggest issue we have is people running off the road, trees and power poles don't give."
Victoria's road toll sits at 108, up from 66 at the same time last year.
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