Drive safe this long weekend

As the Labour Day long weekend approaches Geraldton MLA Ian Blayney has urged motorists to drive safely and build towards bettering last year’s lowest road toll since records began 51 years ago.  

Mr Blayney said a summary of 2013 road statistics released today showed 162 people died on WA roads last year of which 82% were male.

And he warned there was a lot more drivers could do to ensure they arrived at their destination safely because there was no room for complacency on the roads.

“While having 20 fewer deaths than in 2012 and 43 fewer deaths than 2008 is a heartening achievement it is very difficult to be pleased with a road toll that on a per 100,000 population measure has WA the second worst State in the nation ahead of only Tasmania,” he said.

Mr Blayney said while it was encouraging to see that alcohol-related fatalities were down 48% last year, of great concern were the 27 deaths resulting from not wearing a seatbelt.

In the Mid West statistics compiled in the 10 year period between 2003 and 2012 showed that 16% of the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) on our roads were not wearing a seat-belt with speed a contributing factor in 21% of KSI incidents.  

Mr Blayney said motorists should be mindful that double demerits begin at midnight tonight and run through until midnight Monday night.

“2013 has been the best year to date for our road toll and for the number of alcohol related crashes, but now is not the time to be complacent, particularly with 30 fatalities last year still linked to drink driving,” Mr Blayney said.