A new road safety campaign being piloted on Victoria’s Surf Coast aims to reduce road trauma through visual reminders of how important road safety is to local communities.
The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) teamed up with the Surf Coast Shire Council to deliver the initiative, Drive Safely Because, which highlights reasons to drive safely and create a safer community.
Head of Road Safety at TAC, Samantha Cockfield said the Commission worked with the council to identify road safety issues that the campaign would prioritise, with a particular focus on protecting vulnerable road users such as children, pedestrians and cyclists.
“After a summer tourism surge on the Surf Coast, and with the busy Easter break approaching, it’s more important than ever to remind residents and visitors about how our behaviours on the road can affect community safety,” Ms Cockfield said.
“By partnering with local Government and directly targeting their priority areas, we hope this initiative will help make an immediate impact on the way people use roads in the beautiful Surf Coast Shire,” she said.
“The grassroots campaign aims to humanise road safety, and remind people that the foremost reasons to slow down and drive safely are the families and friends that we share their local roads with.”
Ms Cockfield said keeping roads safe was everyone’s responsibility and the campaign encouraged people to take ownership of road safety in their own backyard.
She said that in the past five years, nine people had been killed on Surf Coast Shire roads, including two deaths this year.
“However, 278 people have been hospitalised with injuries from Surf Coast crashes in the five years to June 2020, including 50 people last financial year,” she said.
Ms Cockfield said the highly visible campaign would be driven by co-branded and customised marketing; on-street signage; activations via a range of community platforms; and more than 200 organisations and events.
She said Drive Safely Because would also be piloted in the Mornington Peninsula Shire, with insights and data from both campaigns to inform future road safety partnerships with other local Government areas.
