Crash lessons must be learned

By Darren Linton Road Safety Minister Luke Donnellan has been asked to ensure authorities learn whatever they can from the deaths of four young men in a crash on the Northern Hwy. Corey Bray, 28, Chris Reddin, 22, Nick Mongta, 22, and Joshua Taylor, 19, all from Echuca and Moama were killed when the Holden Commodore they were travelling in left the road and crashed into a tree near Pyalong on January 28. Labor Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes raised the crash in parliament this week, requesting the minister to ask VicRoads about what could be learned from the tragic accident in terms of the safe system approach to road safety. It was a horrific accident, a quadruple fatality, taking the lives of young country men, she told the Legislative Council. Ms Symes said the Northern Hwy had been previously assessed by VicRoads and the safe system principles were applied to the road, which led to the installation of wire rope barriers. The safe systems approach to road safety aims to address all elements of the road transport system in an integrated way, with the aim of ensuring that crash energy levels are below those which would cause fatal or serious injury, she said. Central to this approach is that no death or serious injury occurring on our roads is ever acceptable. It would be appropriate for the minister to discuss with VicRoads how we can learn from this tragedy in the hope that we may be able to prevent future tragedies. Page 1 of 1 13 Feb 2015 Shepparton News, Shepparton VIC Author: Darren Linton Section: General News Article type : News Item Audience : 8,556 Page: 4 Printed Size: 122.00cm Market: VIC Country: Australia ASR: AUD 469 Words: 247 Item ID: 372277572