Council responds to at risk motorcycle riders
17 April 2020
Report shows depth of road safety improvements in the Tweed
Tweed Shire Council has provided more than 280 local motorcycle riders with training over the past three years to stay safe while riding on Tweed roads, which have been upgraded using nearly $6m in funding.
A report to yesterday’s Council Meeting highlighted the roads with the highest crash history: Numinbah Road, Kyogle Road and Tweed Valley Way. A significant amount of the funding has been spent on these roads and next month Council is expected to accept further grant funding of $6.274 million to make more improvements to these roads and others popular with motorcyclists and cyclists.
The report was in response to a Notice of Motion from Councillor James Owen requesting more information on motorcyclist fatalities on Tweed rural roads and the increase in motorcycle riding.
Every year, Council applies for grant funding from the NSW Government’s Fatal Crash Response Program and Safer Roads program and the Federal Government’s Blackspot Programme in acknowledgment that a number of Tweed roads attract recreational riders. Roads that are attractive to motorcyclists are windy and challenging, inherently more risky and often lack the safety features of urban roads.
Road treatments undertaken by Council to improve rider safety include applying high-friction seals, audible line markings, removal of vegetation from the clear zone, vehicle-activated signage to slow down riders, the widening and sealing or road shoulders, realignment of curves and the installation of motorcycle protection barriers on guardrail.
Council’s Road Safety Officer position is 50/50 funded by the Local Government Road Safety Program and Council. Every year this program attracts Transport for NSW funding for Council-run road safety education programs. Over the past three years this has been used to upskill 280 local motorcycle riders via motorcycle first aid and low-risk riding workshops.
Road Safety Officer Alana Brooks said Council adopts a ‘safe system’ approach to road safety that focuses on the key components Safe Roads, Safe Vehicles, Safe Speeds and Safe People.
“It recognises that drivers and riders sometimes make mistakes but a simple mistake shouldn’t cost anyone their life. It also recognises that roads, roadsides and vehicles need to be designed to minimise crashes or reduce the severity of injury if a crash happens,” Ms Brooks said.
Over the past five years (30 June 2014 - 1 July 2019), motorcyclists have accounted for 18 per cent of all injury crashes and 27 per cent of fatal crashes in the state, despite accounting for just 4.2 per cent of registrations in NSW.
In the Tweed over the past year, five motorcyclists were killed on our roads. In all the motorcycle crashes in the Tweed speeding was a factor in 54 per cent; fatigue nine per cent and alcohol five per cent. Most riders who crashed were male (79 per cent), with 45 per cent losing control on a curve and 15 per cent on a straight.
Council continues to work with the NSW Government to achieve its targets of reducing road fatalities by 30 per cent by 2021 (compared to 2008-2010 figures) and achieving ‘target zero’ by 2056.
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Caption: Council continues to work with the NSW Government to achieve its targets of reducing road fatalities by 30 per cent by 2021 (compared to 2008-2010 figures) and achieving ‘target zero’ by 2056.