Coroner To Study Victoria’s Road Deaths History

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.

"We need to have our processes, our systems, our strategies challenged and I'm hoping that's what the coroner will do for us," Mr Lay told AAP.

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.