2018 regional Victoria road toll down

REGIONAL Victoria’s road toll has dropped in the last year.

On Friday morning, Minister for Roads, Jaala Pulford announced 2018 statistics were significantly different from the year before.

There were 108 fatalities last year in comparison to 156 in 2017.

Results in the Grampians region, which includes Ballarat and Golden Plains, shows the road toll is the lowest it’s been since 2007.

Vehicles travelling outside their lane caused 74 deaths this past year in regional Victoria. Of those, 12 were within the Grampians region, down from 18 the year before.

Head on crashes killed four people in the same region and single-vehicle crashes killed eight.

“Any loss of life is a tragic event…a devastating thing,” Ms Pulford said.

Country Victorians are overrepresented within these fatalities and high-speed stretches of road are seeing the most deaths.

More safety wire rope barriers are being installed on high speed roads across the state.

Cars struck these barriers 3000 times within the last 12 months.

Ms Pulford encourages good driver behaviour, believing it’s achievable to reach zero fatalities.