Great Western Highway - Lithgow to Bathurst - Saving Lives on Country Roads

The NSW Government is funding safety upgrades between Lithgow to Bathurst under the Safer Roads Program. Between October 2014 and September 2019, there were 76 casualty crashes recorded, resulting in a total of 125 casualties. These crashes included 7 fatal crashes, 25 serious injury crashes, 42 moderate injury crashes and 2 minor injury crashes.

A high proportion of these crashes (34) involved vehicles leaving the road. Of these 34 crashes, 15 were recorded as either run off road to the right, or head-on crashes and 19 were recorded as run off road to the left. There have been no further fatal crashes since this time (to the end of August 2020).

These alarming numbers triggered significant investment under the Saving Lives on Country Roads program to implement treatments that will reduce the incidence and severity of cross centreline crashes along this section of the Highway.

Project information

Background

The NSW Government has developed the Saving Lives on Country Roads program to help address the disproportionate number of fatalities on country roads by delivering a number of safety improvements for high risk country roads.

The crash history between Lithgow and Bathurst features a high incidence of run off road crashes and in some locations a high incidence of cross centre line crashes, so the NSW Government has funded important safety upgrades to increase the separation of oncoming vehicles, alert drivers when they leave a lane and provide a more forgiving road environment for when people make mistakes.

Safety treatment works recommended and approved for installation include:

Lifesaving flexible barriers, wide centre lines, rumble strips and other safety devices to help prevent run off road and head on crashes
Wide centrelines and flexible centre wire rope barriers to reduce the likelihood of head on crashes
5m wide sealed shoulders providing more room for vehicles to recover whilst remaining on a sealed surface
Rumble strips on centre and outside lines to reduce the likelihood of head on crashes and run off road crashes
Widened clear zones on the roadside to improve visibility and reduce run off road into an object crashes
Raised retroflective pavement markers to improve delineation.

Read more about the benefits of safety treatments at Towards Zero.