TUESDAY’S Road Policing/Safety Community forum will look to address local concerns in road safety amid a growing road toll across the state.
Currently the number of lives lost on Victorian roads has overtaken last year’s figures, with 185 road deaths so far in 2024 compared to 178 at the same time in 2023.
Last year was the highest death toll in 15 years, with 296 people losing their lives on our roads.
Acting Inspector Brendan Michael of Wangaratta police said the forum would focus on the collaborative effort of stakeholders in the community to work towards solutions in reducing road trauma.
“We’ll have some talking points to generate discussion around the number of people that have unfortunately lost their lives in the past five years in fatal collisions, but also the number of serious injury collisions we’ve experienced,” he said.
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“We’ll also talk on concerns around the rate of serious collisions we’ve experienced and some of the other demographics with concerns in our area, and what we can try and do as a collective to reduce that.”
Representatives from Victoria Police Eastern Region Command will be part of the senior police panel leading discussions at the forum and encouraging community input.
Acting Inspector Michael said there would be around 45 attendees from partner agencies including from the L2P mentoring program, SES, CFA, Ambulance Victoria and council.
“We’ve got a broad range of representation, and we really wanted to have that collaborative community discussion and to invite people from those relevant agencies to be a part of the day,” he said.
Originally slated for the Oaks Room at the Wangaratta Turf Club, the forum will instead be held in the Maples Room from 10am with light refreshments to be served afterwards.
There will also be a Road Policing/Safety forum in Beechworth on Monday for the Wodonga Police Service Area, which have seen a catastrophic period on their roads in recent times.
On July 10, an 18-year-old Wodonga man died in a two-vehicle collision in Allans Flat, while a 17-year-old girl subsequently died from injuries sustained in the crash on August 16.
A 63-year-old Tangambalanga man died on August 6 following a two-vehicle collision at Barnawartha.
Members of the public who are attending the Wangaratta forum can submit questions to the senior police panel via the link: https://app.sli.do/event/8qLJgiKL4PZHf6NbBTAxy6/live/questions.
If there’s a question any community member would like answered at the forum, it can be asked prior to the event via email on ED4-DIVISIONAL-OFFIC@police.vic.gov.au and must include name and contact details.
