THE CORONERS COURT of Victoria has announced this week that it will undertake a study of the State's road deaths over the past decade at the request of Police Deputy Commissioner Ken Lay.

The court will look at police files for trends and patterns that could help Victoria Police and the State Government devise future traffic campaigns that will have a greater impact and reduce the road toll.

Mr Lay said that while Victoria Police had initially been confident of a low road toll over the Christmas and New Year period, 17 lives were lost, and thousands were caught speeding or drink-driving.

The Deputy Commissioner said this week that he was hopeful the Coroners Court study would yield enough useful data to give police new ideas for combating what seemed to be a losing battle.

The study, which will be handled by the court's prevention unit, will search for common factors in holiday collisions stretching back to 1999, including the types of vehicles involved, the number of passengers, the time of day and the areas the accidents occurred in.

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  DM says,
  3 years ago

  And then after all that... they will put in a few more speed cameras and pat themselves on tha back. Victoria has lost complete faith in the Voctorian government and police. They will only implement measures if it makes them money. Useless
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  Sam J says,
  3 years ago

  I agree with DM. The govt. and Police blame speeding for everything. In Germany, learner drivers are taught how to drive at 200 kmph.
  Factors that are never looked at include condition of vehicle especially tyre pressures.
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  Brash says,
  3 years ago

  Or the quality of the roads. Dunno bout vic, but down here in SA the roads are among the worst in the developed world. The stupid thing is when we visited my uncle on his property in the mid north of the state over chrissy break, his dirt road is smoother and nicer to drive on than the arterial that I live on!
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  antimatter says,
  3 years ago

  Wonder if the results pertaining to "types of vehicle" will back up this WA study:
  http://www.ors.wa.gov.au/TopicsRoadSafety/Pages/PowerfulCars.aspx
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  Joe Hoonman says,
  3 years ago

  "The court will look at police files for trends and patterns that could help Victoria Police and the State Government devise future traffic campaigns that will have a greater impact and reduce the road toll."
  
  AND to continue to increase the revenue stream...
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  Simon Holmick says,
  3 years ago

  This will not lead to any new initiatives. As already mentioned, the same tired, failed policies of focusing on the tiny number of crashes which occur above the speed limit by placing yet more speed cameras and yet higher fines. This is willful negligence of the part of the government.
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  Goran Turner says,
  3 years ago

  They will get the same genius consultant to help that told them that each 10 kmh increase in road speed is same as getting more and more drunk. The idea being that the faster we go the longer it takes to stop, the drunker we go the longer reaction times. That was the genesis of the "speed kills" mantra, I believe.
  
  I bet you they will not visit other SANE countries like Germany, Italy, France or Switzerland to find out what they are doing.
  
  I agree with other comments above, they will not address the issue of bad roads, too many signs, irresponsible speed limits and lunatic cops. They will devise better means of taxing us by installing speed cameras and what not. I am about to vomit.
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  john Maurice says,
  2 months ago

  1 like

  I have been a Fire fighter for neally 25 years and before speed cameras we had call outs to serious car accidents weekly and fatalities monthly.
  My experience is telling me this has changed, Very rarely turn out to a serious crash and have only been to 2 deaths over the last 6 years.
  Safer cars and roads help but the speed camera's is the main factor. Saying this, I have lost count on how many deaths I have been to, There Was only
  2 that were not speeding, All the many others were travalling well over 100 km and more on 60, 70, 80km roads. I can't say any of us have been to a fatality
  where the car was traveling at only 10-15km over the limit. Pedestrians the only ones I can see benefiting.
  
  John