Road safety plan to help save lives

24 July 2020

Ipswich City Council is delivering the Road Safety Action Plan in a collaborative project with state departments and emergency services to reduce the number of deaths and serious accidents on Ipswich roads.

The General Purposes Committee voted unanimously this week to bring the plan to council. It is the latest part of Ipswich City Council’s iGO transport master-plan to respond the city’s current and future transport needs.

Mayor Teresa Harding said that council was focused on protecting the community with a strategic and coordinated approach to road safety.

“It’s crucial that we work together to improve road safety across all modes of transport in Ipswich and reduce the number of lives lost in accidents on our roads,” Mayor Harding said.

“The Road Safety Action Plan is the next part of the broader iGO Transport plan, which will help council deliver safe and effective transport infrastructure and services to our community, both now and in the future as our city’s population continues to grow.”

The Road Safety Action Plan details how council will work with road authorities and the community to reduce road trauma by working to achieve number of targets over the next five years, including a 15 per cent reduction in rear-end crashes resulting in death or serious injury.

It will also combat driving under the influence, aiming for the number of serious or fatal crashes involving drugs and alcohol to fall below 10 per cent.

Division 4 Councillor, Russell Milligan, welcomed the collaborative approach council was taking by working with the Department of Transport and Main Roads, Queensland Police Service, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, Queensland Health and the Department of Education.

“Working in an integrated way with these stakeholders is clearly the best way forward in improving road safety,” Cr Milligan said.

“This plan will help work towards reducing deaths and serious injuries on our roads and get the results that we want for our community.”

Despite rapid population growth in the Ipswich region, the number of fatal and serious road accidents has decreased in recent years.

Ipswich’s crash rate per capita which results in death or serious injury is approximately 100 per 100,000 population, slightly below the Queensland average.

The iGO Transport plan includes a number of detailed network action plans on the following transport themes:

Visit council’s website for more information on the Road Safety Action Plan and the iGO Transport plan.