VicRoads scraps road safety division

The Age newspaper is reporting that budget cuts have forced VicRoads to scrap its road safety division and ditch its road maintenance strategy.

VicRoads road safety division was responsible for reducing road trauma and improving truck freight routes. 450 of its staff have been retrenched and the rest “scattered across the organisation”, the report says.

According to Vicroads, road repaving commitments for the coming year will be more than halved from 7 percent of the states roads to 3.2 percent. Any Victorian or anyone who’s driven in Victoria lately knows it has the second-worst roads in the country – and it’s a close second – to NSW, which has three-times the landmass but only 30 percent more population from which to draw funding.

Strangely, VicRoads spokesman David Shelton said road safety work would not diminish.

''Improving road safety and reducing the road toll remains a key priority for VicRoads,'' Mr Shelton said.

According to 2011/12 budget papers, the Victorian government collected $257million in speed camera revenue, up 3.1 percent on the previous year.

Read the full report here.