Road safety budget may get increase

A major increase in funding for road safety could be on the table next year as the Timaru District Council attempts to address an ‘‘unacceptable’’ road fatality rate.

Council land transport manager Andrew Dixon told the infrastructure committee on Tuesday that over the past six years there has been an ‘‘unprecedented rise in road casualties at a faster rate than the rate of traffic growth’’ and asks for the employment of an extra road safety officer.

Dixon said this would allow more education and focus on a greater number of road safety initiatives particularly in relation to scooters and mobility scooters.

Dixon, South Canterbury Road Safety’s Daniel Naude and Jane Sullivan, and Senior Sergeant Dylan Murray fielded questions at the meeting in relation to the report.

‘‘The next Long Term Plan will provide an opportunity to raise the bar with road safety and allow the conversation to be had with our community,’’ the report says.

The report acknowledges the council has set aside $800,000 per year to increase engineering improvements to intersections and roads where evidence indicates there are safety risks.

However, to deliver ‘‘priority improvements in a shorter timeframe’’, funding would need to increase to a recommended $1.3 million per year, it says.

Dixon’s report says ‘‘the success of achieving the target reduction in fatalities and serious injuries on our roads requires a multi-agency approach between councils, NZ Transport Agency, police and communities’’.

‘‘SNP and local safety improvement projects identified in Timaru District include Winchester-Geraldine/Coach/ Tiplady roads intersection, Wai-iti/ Wilson/Selwyn streets intersection, Levels Plain/Falvey/Foley roads intersection, Earl Rd, Arowhenua Rd, road crossing improvements around schools and pedestrian crossing improvements in Selwyn and Wai-iti roads. There is an expectation that most of these recommended road infrastructure improvements will be completed.’’

There is one fulltime equivalent road safety co-ordinator (Naude), and another part-time co-ordinator who is focused on school travel planning (Sullivan).

Councillors agreed to put forward the recommendations to next year’s Long Term Plan.