The Victorian Government Road Safety Strategy 2021–2030 aims to halve road deaths and reduce serious injuries by 2030.
The focus of the government’s strategy is on creating a safe road environment and supporting road users to make safe choices.
Victoria Police seeks to support this strategy by engaging in evidenced-based road safety activities that we know work.
We will aim to drive a reduction in road trauma incrementally over the next four years by focusing on the identified themes that cause the most harm and enforcing against those themes.
We will hold offending road users to account, increasing the deterrence effect across all cohorts to create a safer environment for all Victorians.
During the life of this strategy and in alignment with the Keeping You Safe: Victoria Police Strategy 2023–2028, Victoria Police will better equip our police, enhance access to road policing intelligence and improve awareness of what police activities provide the most impactful road safety outcomes.
Road safety areas of focus
Speed
Distraction
Impaired driving
Seatbelts and restraints
Rural roads
High risk driving
Unauthorised driving
Keeping You Safe: Victoria Police Strategy 2023–2028
The Victoria Police Road Safety Strategy 2024–2028 will support the organisation to deliver on its vision for exceptional police services in alignment to the Keeping You Safe: Victoria Police Strategy 2023–2028.
| Keeping You Safe: Victoria Police Strategy 2023–2028 | Victoria Police Road Safety Strategy 2024–2028 |
|---|---|
 Policing Highly visible and responsive policing | Providing a highly visible police presence on Victorian roads to support general deterrence and respond to road related events. We will support members to understand the contribution they can make to road policing activities as part of core duties and tailored to the communities they serve. |
 People Skilled people, ready and able to respond | Ensuring road policing assets are refreshed to support safe work practices and road policing operations are informed through evidence and intelligence. We will support members to deliver exceptional services with up-to-date information to inform deployments, upgraded equipment and by providing access to research informed practice. |
 Partnerships Strong partnerships across community, government and business | Supporting our road safety partners in working towards a shared vision of reducing road trauma and collaboratively exploring opportunities for innovation. We will support members to work with community to identify local road safety priorities, as well as collaborating with road safety partners on new initiatives. whilst maintaining enforcement to hold offenders to account. |
The Safe System
The Safe System is the internationally recognised exemplar approach to road safety.
The Victorian Government Road Safety Strategy 2021–2030 and its action plans are informed by international experience and expertise, including the Safe System. It advocates a collective and coordinated approach to road safety (per Figure 1 below).
Figure 1. Safe System approach
Safe System approach
Safe System objectives
The Safe System approach to road safety focuses on the four key pillars of the transport system being vehicles, roads and roadsides, speeds, and road users.
Victoria Police works collaboratively with the community and our road safety partners to ensure a holistic approach to managing risk for all road users.
Safer speeds
Enhanced enforcement of non-compliance with a focus on behavioural change through specific and general deterrence.
Safer roads and roadsides
Engage and influence our road safety partners to continually improve infrastructure through design and maintenance.
Safer vehicles
Promote awareness of the risk associated with older vehicles through community engagement and enforce standards of vehicle roadworthiness.
Safer road users
Enforcement, including communication of this enforcement, is critical to ensuring road users are motivated to stay within the operational boundaries of the Safe System.
With our road safety partners and using our Neighbourhood Policing Framework, we will highlight our enforcement efforts against all forms of non-compliance to increase the perception of being caught, to enhance general deterrence.
Vulnerable road users
Vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists, e-scooter riders and motorcyclists, face a myriad of risks on today’s roads.
These individuals often lack the protective structures afforded by vehicles, making them particularly susceptible to serious injuries or fatalities in the event of a collision.
In line with the Victorian Government Road Safety Strategy 2021–2030, we aim to prioritise measures that improve safety for these vulnerable groups.
Understanding road user behaviour
Road safety experts highlight that for many road users, road rule compliance is a motivation issue rather than an awareness issue.2
This indicates that road users are often making conscious decisions to ignore road rules and are comfortable that they can do so without consequence, resulting in a significant increase in the risk and severity of a collision.
A single act of non-compliance occurs when a road user has made an error or disobeyed a road rule (e.g., low level speeding).
Enforcement and trauma data indicates that there is a large percentage of road users in Victoria who routinely engage in non-compliance with road rules.
Their behaviours do not constitute extreme non-compliance but are embedded in their everyday driving/riding and are a major contributor to road trauma.
Speeding prevalence
75% of Victorian drivers admit to speeding at least some of the time.3
Behaviour change
Compliance with the Road Safety Camera program demonstrates that Victorians do change their behaviour when enforcement outcomes are known.4
Intentional non compliance
Concerningly, for 41% of Victorian drivers, speeding is an intentional behaviour. Younger drivers (18 to 29 years old) are more likely to admit to speeding intentionally at least ‘some of the time’, as are male drivers and those who drive at least daily.5
Across the Victorian road network every day, there are several road user types that contribute to road trauma:
- Mostly compliant road users who occasionally and/or unintentionally make an error constituting a single act of non-compliance.
- Non-compliant road users who make a conscious decision to routinely ignore road rules resulting in single or multiple acts of non-compliance.
- Deliberately dangerous and high risk road users who deliberately and consistently engage in dangerous or extreme driving behaviours.
There is a belief within the community that road fatalities and serious injuries are largely the result of risk taking or extreme behaviour, however data shows that around two thirds of road fatalities originate from a single act of non-compliance.6
Over the next four years, Victoria Police will focus on opportunities to be highly visible on our roads, conducting enforcement activities to improve compliance and reduce risk taking behaviour.
Within the key areas of road safety, we will focus on single acts of non-compliance such as low range speeding and opportunities for increased general deterrence related to impairment, distraction and seatbelt offences.
Research and international experience have demonstrated that road users who routinely engage in single acts of noncompliance can be strongly influenced by high visibility policing and enforcement activities.
This commitment to general deterrence will be delivered through our professional people, strategic partnerships and strengthened policy.
3 Road Safety Camera Perceptions Wave 3 Report, 2023, EY Sweeney, available at https://cameracommissioner.vic.gov.au/publications/road-safety-camera-commissioner-survey-wave-3
4 Victoria State Government, Victorian Budget 2023/24, Doing What Matters, Service Delivery, Budget Paper No.3, available at https://www.dtf.vic.gov.au/state-budget/2023-24-state-budget
5 Road Safety Camera Perceptions Wave 3 Report, 2023
6 Victoria Police Statistics, 2023, Lives Lost
Updated