Comedy and road safety partnership resumes in state’s east

27 Jun 2017

An unlikely partnership between laughter and road safety is at the centre of a new Transport Accident Commission effort to save regional Victorian lives.

The TAC has joined forces with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Road Show, which resumes its 13-show tour in north eastern Victoria and Gippsland in early July.

The partnership will see road safety take centre stage at comedy shows in Wangaratta, Traralgon, Sale and Bairnsdale.

With motorists four times more likely to die on regional roads, the TAC’s presence at the shows will encourage country Victorians to ‘stand up for road safety’.

TAC road safety manager Samantha Buckis said the road show would remind country drivers that they had a personal role to play in the state’s Towards Zero mission.

“Too many country people are killed on country roads so we really need to highlight the choices people can make to keep themselves and the people they care about safe,” Ms Buckis said.

“By partnering with the comedy road show we can drive community support and responsibility for the Towards Zero vision of zero deaths and serious injuries on our roads,” she said.

Ms Buckis said it was critical that the TAC continued to find new ways to get country drivers thinking about road safety.

A team of TAC representatives will have a colourful presence at the events, helping audiences get home safely with free breath tests before they leave.

The team will also help people understand how Victoria’s Towards Zero approach will reduce road trauma, with record investments in safe roads and ensuring Victorians are safer drivers and driving safer cars.

“Over the next three years regional Victorians will see safety barriers rolling out right across our country roads network as part of our effort to create a road network that will be more forgiving of mistakes that would have in the past been fatal,” Ms Buckis said.

“It’s also critical that country drivers understand the decisions they can make personally that will protect them when something unexpected happens, whether it’s driving the safest car they can afford or slowing down when the conditions are bad.”

“We can’t prevent humans from making mistakes but we can create a more forgiving road system that will stop those mistakes resulting in serious injuries.”

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