Greater Shepparton City Council has shone a light on road safety over the past week, with National Road Safety Week creating conversations in the community about road trauma and ways we can reduce it.
In Summary
- Greater Shepparton City Council successfully engaged the community in National Road Safety Week, promoting awareness and dialogue around road trauma reduction.
- Various initiatives were undertaken throughout the week, including lighting up assets in yellow, school crossing education programs, and highlighting the role of school crossing supervisors.
- Over 70,000 Australians pledged to drive safely, reflecting a significant commitment to road safety.
- The week culminated in activities promoting sharing the streets and raising awareness about road safety on regional roads, contributing to the overall success of the campaign.
Led by the Safer Australian Roads and Highways Group, this year's National Road Safety Week (NRSW) ran from Sunday 5 May to Sunday 12 May 2024, with the aim to highlight the importance of being safe on our roads and the devastating impact road trauma has on families, friends, first responders and the wider community. Council contributed to this year's campaign by promoting each daily theme through a variety of different programs and initiatives that took place over the week.
The national road toll in 2023 tragically saw 1,266 lives lost on Australian roads. This number of lives lost was an increase of 7.3 percent for the 12 month period ending December.
The theme to kick off NRSW on Sunday 5 May was 'Remember the 1200'. To start the week, Council lit up some of its assets in yellow, including the Mooroopna Water Tower, to remember the 1,200 lives lost in 2023. Local emergency service personnel, including Fire Rescue Victoria, Victoria Police and Shepparton Search and Rescue, showed their support.
On Monday 6 May, Council took on the daily NRSW theme of 'Your Road Safety Pledge' by pledging to drive so others survive and encouraging the community to follow. To date, over 70,000 Australian's have taken the pledge to drive safely as if their loved ones were on the road ahead.
On Tuesday 7 May, the theme 'Road Safety for the Next Generation' saw Council Officers facilitate a fun and interactive School Crossing Education Program with St Georges Road Primary School's foundation students. The students were able to re-enact crossing a road using a pretend school crossing with equipment. The students left the session with a better idea of how to safely cross the road using the key message of 'Stop, Look, Listen and Think' before crossing.
Wednesday's theme focused on 'Protecting those who protect us'. Council highlighted the amazing work our School Crossing Supervisors do around Greater Shepparton, allowing children and adults to safely cross the road to attend local schools. School Crossing Supervisors Reno Lia and Liz Capuano were featured in Wednesday's Shepparton News, which highlighted the important work our School Crossing Supervisors do and reminded road users to be safe around school crossings by respecting the speed limits and slowing down in school zones.
'How Safe is My Ride?' was the theme for Thursday, encouraging the community to think about safety when choosing a ride, including wearing seatbelts, helmets and protective gear to ensure a safe ride.
Friday was National Walk Safely to School Day. Children across Greater Shepparton participated in the annual day which encouraged primary school aged students to have positive pedestrian behaviour, exercise, and minimise the impact of the environment by not using vehicles. Council encouraged local students and parents to share their walk to school experience on the Activities in the Park Facebook event page which saw some great prizes up for grabs.
Over the weekend, NRSW ended with the two themes 'Share the Street' and 'Take Care on Regional Roads', with Council raising awareness around sharing the roads with vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. Colouring in pages were placed throughout local kindergartens for children to colour in and learn about road safety, highlighting the message of sharing the street.
Overall, the week was a huge success with multiple programs and initiatives taking place encouraging road safety and what we can do as a community to make our roads safer. Mayor, Cr Shane Sali, emphasised the importance of National Road Safety Week and the important role we all play.
"Council is really happy with the increased awareness around road safety over the past week, particularly with the educational information given to our young students across Greater Shepparton," he said.
"It is vital that we are teaching road safety to our younger generation and the School Crossing Education Program, among others, is a fantastic initiative which works towards achieving this."
