More than 2600 people were injured on Whittlesea’s roads in the past five years, a new report reveals.
Between 2012-16, there were 2603 injury crashes in the municipality, of which 24 resulted in fatalities and 563 were serious injury crashes, according to the council’s new road safety strategy.
Local, council-controlled roads accounted for a third of the road trauma, with nine fatalities and 210 serious injuries.
The strategy stated that while the level of road trauma in the municipality is declining, Whittlesea still has a higher road fatality rate than most of its neighbouring councils.
In Mitchell, there were 19 fatalities between 2012-16, while Darebin recorded 11 and Banyule 10. Only Hume had more fatalities (26). Thirty per cent of accidents involved vehicles travelling in the same direction.
The council hopes to use the findings in the strategy to work with the state government, police and the Transport Accident Commission to reduce crashes.
Cr Sam Alessi said it was important the council did everything it could to improve road safety. He said a crash on Plenty Road in 2010, in which five young people were killed, was still remembered by many residents.
The strategy named the intersection of Edgars and Mahoneys roads in Thomastown as the most dangerous in the municipality, accounting for 20 crashes, including one fatality. The council plans to advocate to VicRoads to improve the safety of the intersection.
The intersections of High and Cooper streets in Epping and the Metropolitan Ring Road exit at Dalton Road were also listed as being among the top crash locations. .
