VICROADS SMASH HITS
By Anne Wright. wrighta@heraldsun.com.au
"VICROADS employees racked up more than $525,000 damage in car accidents in just 16 months.
In the same time, leadfoot employees were fined almost $22,000 for flouting road laws at an average of once every three working days, or about six a month."
DC - Some may ask how many VicRoads/TAC/Police employees were not booked for traffic offences they commited.
"... employees made 165 insurance claims for company (VicRoads) cars between January last year and April this year.
Of the $525,261 claims bill to be paid by taxpayers, more than half was caused by employees crashing cars into other vehicles.
... In 2008, the Herald Sun found employees were committing traffic offences at the rate of 11 a month.
Employees were fined $21,976.50 for 131 traffic offences between January 2010 and April 2011.
Working Against Culpable Driving spokes woman Penny Martin yesterday said VicRoads employees hadn't learnt their lesson.
'They need to lift their game.' Ms Martin said. 'Whether they like it or not, VicRoads, the TAC and police need to set an example ..."
Personally I'm not comfortable with VicRoads having anything to do with road safety. I think VicRoads should stick to transport infrastructure. Victoria should have an independent road safety authority overseeing the all road safety matters from crash site data collection, though unbiased research to initiating safety campaigns and countermeasures.
I am even more uncomfortable with VicRoads having anything to do with motorcycle & scooter safety.
The Age - Friday, July 15, 2011.
RIDING THE ODDS
By Ian Munro
"As a state parliamentary inquiry (DC - into motorcycle & scooter safety in Victoria) uncovered almost 20 years ago, the state roads, licencing and registration authority, VicRoads, had a policy of 'not implementing any programs that could be construed as encouraging motorcycling'
Having decided that motorcycling was inherently risky, VicRoads thought it best to do nothing to make it safer in case this encouraged more people to take it up. VicRoads has formally abandoned the policy, but in the licencing system it's legacy seemingly lingers."
I think the antibike policy lingers, unofficially of course, in a lot more places than just the licencing system.
The Victorian Motorcycle Advisory Council (VMAC) became a rubber stamp for VicRoads/TAC/Police policies under the Bracks/Brumby governments. VMAC was dominated by VicRoads/TAC/Police and rider representation was weak. The Baillieu/Ryan coalition was elected in November 2010. It's published policy was to replace VMAC with a new group to give motorcycle & scooter riders better representation to government.
On November 22, 2010, just before the state election, Shadow Roads Minister, Terry Mulder, issued a media release.
"Mr Mulder said a coalition government would work to give motorcycle groups and the industry stronger representation on a newly established Motorcycle Advisory Group."
The new government requested advice from the Independent Riders' Group (IRG) on setting up the new Motorcycle Advisory Group (MAG) and recommendations on who should be on it. A discussion paper was circulated. It recommended that MAG have an independent Chair and Secretary and that meetings be held in business hours and in a central location, Melbourne Town Hall perhaps. VMAC meetings used to be held at VicRoads HQ in Kew.
MAG has an independent Chair, The Hon David Hawker. David was the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Canberra and is a motorcyclist. Meetings are held quarterly, in business hours. The first MAG meeting was on August 5, 2011.
But, MAG meetings are still at VicRoads HQ and already there have been rumours of attempts to stop MAG members speaking on MAG matters outside MAG meetings. It's road safety not national security. The more serious debate the better.
The IRG wrote to VicRoads' CEO, Gary Lidel, on July 12, asking for the last vacant seat on MAG. IRG received a reply from Acting CEO, Bruce Gidley, dated August 10. In part it said.
"The Victorian Motorcycle Advisory Council (VMAC) was wound up in March this year and has been replaced by the Motorcycle Advisory Group. The new group has been set up to provide advice to VicRoads ...
The purpose of this change is to ensure that decisions made by VicRoads and its' advice to the Government are made following consideration of relevant input from a range of stakeholders. The membership of the group has been selected by VicRoads ... I am confident that the members chosen will make a valuable contribution to our work."
It remains to be seen if MAG will be dominated by public servants who don't ride, sanitising the minutes and offering government only advice deemed suitable by VicRoads/TAC/Police. VicRoads has already decided who our representatives will be.
I said at the start I'm not comfortable with VicRoads having anything to do with road safety. I just do not believe enough VicRoads employees have their priorities right when it comes to motorcycle & scooter safety.
To have a say about departmental policies, the TAC tax or any motorcycle & scooter issue, please email rsc@parliament.vic.gov.au .
To have a say about departmental policies, the TAC tax or any motorcycle & scooter issue, please email rsc@parliament.vic.gov.au .
Damien Codognotto OAM
Independent Riders' Group
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