Road toll lowest on record

Road safety efforts will step up across Queensland despite a record low monthly road toll in February.

Transport and Main Roads Minister Scott Emerson and Police Minister Jack Dempsey said the work of Police and a new road safety campaign were just the start of the effort to make driving safer.

“In February this year we saw 12 fatalities on our roads, this is the equal lowest month on record along with February 1999 and February 2004,” Mr Emerson said.

“While this is encouraging, people are still losing their lives on our roads and we can’t slow down our efforts to make driving safer.

“We promised at the election to revitalise frontline services, which includes more effective policing and safety efforts, and we are delivering on that commitment.”

The Government this week finalised $82 million of road safety projects, announced as part of the $350 million, two-year Road Safety Action Plan.

It follows the successful Join the Drive to Save Lives Christmas campaign, which used real Queenslanders giving their road safety tips. This year’s Easter campaign will target drivers’ attitudes towards speeding.

“We’ve seen improvements in all police regions this year, except for the Northern Police Region, which was one ahead of 2013,” Mr Dempsey said.

“Some have reduced their road toll dramatically, like the Central Region, which is down by 20 in January and February this year.

“The 2010 road toll was the lowest since accurate records began and I’m hoping this year’s start gives everyone the motivation to take care whenever they’re behind the wheel.

“Take note of the Fatal Five – do not drink, do not speed, wear a seat belt, do not drive distracted and do not drive fatigued.

“We have an additional 676 police on the beat, a second police helicopter due to take to the sky mid this year, and we have introduced tough new laws against dangerous drivers.

“We’ve strengthened our evade police laws, and further developed our number plate recognition technology.

“These are just some of the measures we’ve introduced to help make Queensland’s roads the safest they can be and to boost frontline services where Labor was failing to act.”

Up to midnight Monday (3 March), there were 34 deaths on Queensland roads – 24 fewer than the same time last year.

[ENDS] 5 March 2014

Media contact: Minister Emerson – Stephanie Shield 0418 186 625

Minister Dempsey – Andrew Blow 0408 912 82