After a horror few weeks on Wheatbelt roads, the Toodyay RoadWise Committee has said they are advocating with Main Roads to reduce the speed limits on roads they believe are not suitable for the road conditions.
Chair of Toodyay RoadWise Committee Bob Neville said the recent number of fatal and serious crashes in the local area have come as a shock to the wider community.
“We were looking good at one stage,” Mr Neville said.
“We’d had quite a long stretch without any fatalities in the Wheatbelt area and then all of a sudden it hit us hard.
“Our thoughts go out to all of the families and friends of those people,”
He said part of the solution in reducing the number of fatalities in Government funding for road upgrades.
“I hope we can get Government to start spending more money in the regional areas, whether that be roads or public transport, I think it’s something that’s got to happen,” Mr Neville said.
“Ideally we’ve got to get them upgraded.
“There is money available, money can be made available and I think it’s something the Government really needs to work on.”
In May, Wundowie recorded two fatal, and two serious crashes within the span of two weeks.
Of those, three were single vehicle crashes.
Mr Neville said in his experience the majority of crashes in the Wheatbelt only involve the one vehicle.
“A lot of fatal crashes are single vehicle crashes,” he said.
“It can often be fatigue, it can be that people drink and drive and the roads are very unforgiving in those circumstances, particularly in the early morning and the evening time.
“You have to be awake and you have to have your wits about you when you’re driving those roads, particularly when you are driving at 110km/h.”
