Lismore City Council has won an Excellence in Road Safety Award for its innovative Drive to Conditions Project at the 2012 National Awards for Local Government.
Council’s road safety officer Lisa Marshall attended the awards presentation at Parliament House in Canberra last Tuesday night and said it was very special to be recognised on a national scale for the work Council does.
The Drive to Conditions Project addressed major crash problems on the local road network through a range of measures, including complementary enforcement and education initiatives, road improvements and removal of roadside hazards.
Lisa said this is the second award Council has received for the project and believes it’s because it has been based on the Safe Systems Strategy 2011–2020, which was recently released nationally.
‘We’ve based it on the principles of that strategy so it has a strong foundation and the fact we used the key elements of the strategy in a project just months after it was released shows we’re on top of our game,’ said Lisa.
‘Other councils are already asking about it and trying to adopt it, and I think that’s the other thing the judges would have liked – its transferability. Plus it’s all encompassing in its approach. While the underlying goal of the project is to reduce speeds, it looks at all issues related to speed – not just behavioural change but how to improve the road environment and the safety of vehicles. So it really looks at the bigger picture.’
The Department of Infrastructure and Transport supported the Excellence in Road Safety category award, which was sponsored by the National Road Safety Council.
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