Road safety focus for community event

Addressing the alarming number of serious injury and fatal crashes on rural and regional roads will be the focus of a community get together in Grafton tomorrow (Wednesday 27 September).

The free event, hosted by Transport for NSW, will be held at Memorial Park at the river end of Prince Street, Grafton, from noon to 1:30pm and will include a sausage sizzle, giveaways, and awareness testing as well as interactive and educational road safety displays.

Transport’s Brad Crispin said there had been a devastating surge in fatal crashes on Australian roads this year and deaths on country roads were disproportionately high.

“Country residents make up only about 30 per cent of the NSW population, but deaths on rural and regional roads make up for about 70 per cent of the state’s road toll,” Mr Crispin said.

“Country residents have about five times the fatality rate on roads compared with metropolitan residents.

“That means far too many country residents have lost their mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife, child, or friend.

“Road toll trauma extends beyond the immediate family to the first responders who attend the scene and to the community who no longer see a familiar face. 

“Our staff are encouraging the local community to be the change they want to see out there on the road.” 

The Grafton road safety event is part of the Australian Road Safety Foundation’s Rural Road Safety Month which has an awareness campaign targeting regional and rural road safety.

It is designed to highlight the additional risks when driving on rural and remote roads across Australia.

* Grafton road safety campaigner, Wayne (Tank) Phillips, who lost his son in a car crash 13 years ago last week, will be attending the event. Video of Tank encouraging people to attend is available here.