New statistics show Victoria's most dangerous roads are in regional areas

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Regional Victorian Councils are being left frustrated by state government red tape that's holding up the tens of millions of dollars they need to fix damaged roads.

Transcript

00:00The potholes Dale Pointer is looking out for are a bit bigger than average.

00:16If I put my foot in there, you can see that's ankle deep.

00:19But they're a fact of life around Nulliwil in North West Victoria, where his children

00:25travel on the school bus every day.

00:27You're continually worrying if it's 70 tonne trucks coming the other way and these deteriorating

00:32roads, you know.

00:34It's not a question of if, it's probably a question of when.

00:38Those trucks will flock here soon when the Balogueshye's grain crops are ready for harvest.

00:44But the roads they rattle down are in a state of disrepair, three years after the 2022 floods

00:51took their toll.

00:52It's now 2024, the flood was in 2022.

00:55If we had the support, this would be done and dusted now.

01:00Hundreds of millions of dollars in disaster funding was pledged by the state and federal

01:05governments in the aftermath.

01:07But to date, the Balogueshye has only received a fraction of the money it needs for repairs.

01:13They're not listening, we've spoken with ministers, we've had our local member raise it in parliament,

01:18but here we are still chasing the money.

01:20Nothing's done about it until there is a severe tragedy.

01:23And I mean, if that's, that's too late.

01:26But it's not just remote rural roads that are dangerous in regional Victoria.

01:33Yeah, this is part of the death stretch as people refer to it.

01:37David Gregg lives next to the Western Highway at Buanga, about an hour west of Ballarat.

01:43It's the main freight route connecting Melbourne and Adelaide.

01:46But locals say it's a death trap.

01:49There are fatal accidents on this stretch behind me every few months.

01:53When the page goes off, you're like, oh, I'm not another one.

01:56Locals' fears were realised in May, when three people died in a five-car accident here on

02:02the Western Highway at Armstrong.

02:05In safety ratings published by Aust Roads last month, this stretch of the highway was given

02:10a one-star rating out of five, a score that's all too common on regional Victorian roads.

02:17The statistics paint a disturbing picture of an obvious divide between

02:22metropolitan and regional arterial roads.

02:25While Melbourne has a handful with a quality rating of one,

02:29regional Victoria is covered by a web of major roads with the lowest possible score.

02:35Certainly when you're talking about the burden of deaths and serious injuries,

02:41that's in the rural and regional areas.

02:43Ingrid Johnston says Australia's rural roads need urgent attention.

02:48So if you take a one-star road and you turn it into a two-star road,

02:53you've just halved the fatalities and serious injuries on that road.

02:57But in a state riddled with debt and pushing ahead with multi-billion dollar road projects in the city,

03:04finding the money for country roads isn't easy.

03:08The duplication of the Western Highway started in 2013,

03:12but five years ago it was halted due to legal action over its proposed route.

03:18That action was resolved last year, but the project remains mothballed.

03:23Jacinta Allen deserves to give us some answers of if the money's there,

03:27when it's going to be started and why it's being held off on for so long.

03:31A state government spokesperson couldn't confirm a date for the project to resume.

03:37It's a real concern. As they say, country people die on country roads. That's why.

03:42A call for action. Charlotte Wilkes, ABC News.

03:47A call for action.

03:49You have to .

03:52You should be the candidate prevention.

03:55You should have the opportunity for housing,

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