Road Safety Standards
Road safety is a pressing issue all around the world. Australia is no exception. Since the introduction of the motor vehicle there has been an increase in accidents on streets and although the regulatory bodies have implemented road safety rules, there seems to be no reduce. Following is a look on how the Australians are tackling and mitigating the issue of increased motor vehicle accidents in the recent past.
The Overview
Australia has in place what is called a National Road Safety Strategy. This was initiated by the Transport and Infrastructure Council, the first of which was established in 1992 through a collaborative approach by the ministers of state, federal and territory transportation. This is a strategy which involves national collaboration and provides a framework in which to do so.
Safe System Approach
This is a system which incorporates all elements on the road and their interactions which thereby aspires to reduce deaths and serious injuries due to human errors. It has been found through the years in which it has been in use that many severe accidents were prevented as a result of the right intervention at the right time and it isn’t only human error which needs to be fixed in order to reduce road accidents. In 2015 alone when considering motorcycle accidents, Victoria reported the lowest number of fatalities since 1987, something which could not even be done with the many ktm spare parts made available to increase performance, reaction speeds and increase overall motorcycle safety.
Regulatory Bodies
The different levels of regulatory bodies have been given varying areas and authority in which to control the road safety system. Regulating safety standards for allocating infrastructure resources, national highway security, standards of safety for new vehicles and safety of local road networks in under the jurisdiction of the Australian government. Planning, funding, operating and designing of road networks is under the jurisdiction of the state and territory governments. Regulating driver licensing, vehicle registrations and enforcing road user behavior of the whole country is also up to them. The local governments on the other hand perform these same services of planning, funding, designing and operating within their own local areas.
Road safety thus far has been achieved through the use of a better road network with strictly regulated speed limits and graduated licensing. Vehicle standards ensuring safer vehicles on the road as well as programs to improve driver discipline such as seatbelt usage and creating awareness on drunk driving and speeding are a few of the many programs conducted. While all this has helped reduce road trauma, the numbers are still in the thousands and is costing the country billions of dollars along with the loss of thousands of lives every year.