Our Dangerous Roads
October 5th 2006 07:15
How many fatal accidents are needed before the government will improve the condition of Australian roads?
Unfortunately, there's so many fatal road accidents in Australia where road conditions have been attributed as the cause of the accident or at least a contributing factor.
One fatality on our roads is one too many.
Improving road conditions needs to be a high priority for the government. Preserving life is the most important and most rewarding job the government can do. So why isn't the government solving this massive issue?
There is no excuse of not having enough money when the government can spend millions of dollars on luxury items like sport. There is absolutely no reason why every single road in this country cannot be of a safe standard.
Money spent on roads would be an investment as this would result in considerable savings. Each road accident carries with it a large social cost to the community due to the associated costs of having the emergency services attend an accident. This is without even mentioning the trauma our emergency services personnel deals with when they attend a fatal accident.
There are many sections of roads in Australia that are so dangerous they should not be used.
If the government spends the necessary funds on developing a relible and user-friendly public transport system, as I argued in my last blog, there would only be a requirement to bring the road infrasture up to a safe standard and nothing more. With considerably more people using public transport, there would be less people using roads, and therefore road upgrades would last a lot longer. This would go a long way in saving lives.
It would also limit the heavy workload in our hospitals with less people being admitted into the emergency departments due to less road accidents. This would be a much welcome relief for our health system that is currently in a crisis stage.
Unfortunately, there's so many fatal road accidents in Australia where road conditions have been attributed as the cause of the accident or at least a contributing factor.
One fatality on our roads is one too many.
Improving road conditions needs to be a high priority for the government. Preserving life is the most important and most rewarding job the government can do. So why isn't the government solving this massive issue?
There is no excuse of not having enough money when the government can spend millions of dollars on luxury items like sport. There is absolutely no reason why every single road in this country cannot be of a safe standard.
Money spent on roads would be an investment as this would result in considerable savings. Each road accident carries with it a large social cost to the community due to the associated costs of having the emergency services attend an accident. This is without even mentioning the trauma our emergency services personnel deals with when they attend a fatal accident.
There are many sections of roads in Australia that are so dangerous they should not be used.
If the government spends the necessary funds on developing a relible and user-friendly public transport system, as I argued in my last blog, there would only be a requirement to bring the road infrasture up to a safe standard and nothing more. With considerably more people using public transport, there would be less people using roads, and therefore road upgrades would last a lot longer. This would go a long way in saving lives.
It would also limit the heavy workload in our hospitals with less people being admitted into the emergency departments due to less road accidents. This would be a much welcome relief for our health system that is currently in a crisis stage.
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