NEWS DESK
Shire slows down for safety Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au EFFORTS being made to cut the road toll on the Mornington Peninsula will be outlined to an international audience in Canada in August. Road safety specialist Bruce Corben will outline the shire’s Towards Zero strategies and objectives to the ninth international conference on urban traffic safety Committee in Banff, Alberta, Canada in August. It is now one year since Mornington Peninsula Shire agreed to instigate road safety programs designed to make it a Towards Zero municipality and at the start of this month there had been no deaths recorded on the peninsula’s roads this year. The last recorded death was in Boundary Rd, Dromana on 16 December last year when a man died after the car he was driving hit a power pole just before midnight. Steps being taken to reduce death and injury resulting from traffic incidents centre mainly on reducing vehicle speeds. Traffic “calming” structures are being constructed in local streets and speed limits are being reduced on many roads, especially where there are high volumes of cyclists and pedestrians. In other places, such as near the Pillars rock diving site off the Esplanade, Mt Martha, signs advise drivers to drive slower than the legal speed limit. The shire is buying fleet vehicles with five-star safety ratings and also
Safety first: Road safety expert Bruce Corben, Mornington Peninsula Shire mayor Bev Colomb, Victoria’s Police Assistant Commissioner of Road Policing Doug Fryer, Nigel McGuire White, Safe System Infrastructure Program director Bryan Sherritt and the shire’s traffic and road safety strategist Doug Bradbrook.
asking the state government for money to help make safer roads. The shire’s acting manager for infrastructure strategy Ed Pocock said the most current road trauma statistics for the peninsula show that between the start of 2012 and the end of 2016, there
have been 37 deaths and 572 serious injuries on peninsula roads. He said Towards Zero strategy has been developed to align shire with the state’s current road safety strategy and follows the principles of the Shire’s Peninsula Drivesafe 2008-2018 strategy.
The shire also works with Frankston on road safety initiatives and programs. Concern about the number of road accidents is also expressed in the shire’s alcohol policy, which states that there are more alcohol-related in-
cidents in the shire than elsewhere in the state. Between 2012 and 2014 ambulance attendances in the shire to alcohol-related incidents were 33 per cent higher than in Victoria as a whole; emergency department presentations were 40 per cent higher; and hospital admissions were 39 per cent higher. “While alcohol consumption is widely recognised as a legitimate social activity, alcohol-related harm is a significant public health issue which currently impacts Mornington Peninsula Shire residents at a higher rate than that of Victoria,” the shire’s alcohol policy states. At a recent council meeting the shire was praised for its “leadership” in road safety by the Assistant Commissioner of Road Policing Doug Fryer, and Bryan Sherritt, director of the Safe System Infrastructure Program team formed by the Transport Accident Commission and VicRoads. The mayor Cr Bev Colomb said providing a safe road network was an important part of the shire’s responsibility. “We are glad to be working in collaboration with the Transport Accident Commission, VicRoads and Victoria Police on the Towards Zero initiative to reduce road trauma on the peninsula. “We will continually advocate to the state government to help improve our roads to ensure our community members and tourists have safe and relaxed driving experience when driving around the peninsula.
‘All clear’ for speed cameras Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au THE Road Safety Camera Commissioner has backed the performance of the Peninsula Link speed cameras and reproached motorists contesting their fines. The commissioner, John Voyage, was asked to investigate the cameras by Police Minister Lisa Neville after “public disquiet about the system” – most noticeably by members of the 108 group who claimed they had “set their vehicle’s cruise controls and so the detected speed reading was in error”. Mr Voyage stated in his report that he
was “unable to find any error in any of the aspects of the road safety camera systems along Peninsula Link”. His investigation covered six sites of instant camera systems and four pointto-point zones. “I find there to be a pervasive culture … among drivers of slowing at cameras and then speeding up after passing the camera,” Mr Voyage said. “I also find that there is substantial misunderstanding by … drivers of the way the point-to-point road safety camera systems on Peninsula Link operate.” Mr Voyage stated that “after the most detailed analysis … no errors or faults were found. “The system is operating
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accurately, and its integrity has been validated.” Three cameras gauge drivers’ speed between the Skye Rd Bridge, Frankston, and Mornington-Tyabb Rd, Moorooduc, going south, and three face drivers going north, between Loders Rd and Skye Rd. At each camera site dual devices measure the speed of every vehicle the instant it passes the camera. A photograph is taken of every vehicle passing through, regardless of the speed. Vehicles’ registrations are matched, as well as the time at each point. Zones between cameras have been measured, so the calculation of distance divided by time gives a mini-
mum average speed between the two points, or point-to-point speed. Mr Voyage said only two drivers had backed up their complaints with data. “Using the data logs supplied … we were able to track these two vehicles’ journeys, as well as the journeys of vehicles travelling in their vicinity. The data records these vehicles overtaking numerous other vehicles but not being overtaken. “A third driver, who has not contacted my office, made various assertions in the media and provided limited data to the media. His matter is apparently before the courts. “No other complainant provided any data, or dash-cam footage, or the like.
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Only two sets were received, and both GPS data logs were of little or no probative value.” Mr Voyage said: “After exhaustive analysis, we have no evidence of any failures in the road safety camera system; and no evidence of reliance upon cruise control leading to adverse outcomes.” He said many drivers expressed the “erroneous belief that the point-topoint system would average the speeds at the two instantaneous ends of the zone; others thought that the point-topoint measure would be avoided by travelling at or below the speed limit at the instantaneous cameras”. Continued Page 14
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Southern Peninsula News 9 May 2017
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