HEAD ON Henderson puts spotlight on Great Ocean Road driver safety

CORANGAMITE federal member Sarah Henderson has revved the engine on a debate on driver safety on the Great Ocean Road following a community meeting in Apollo Bay at the weekend.

Ms Henderson said there were a number of emotional testimonies at the meeting that she hosted, as local residents spoke about serious accidents they had been involved in on and around the Great Ocean Road.

“One bus driver said that driving along the Great Ocean Road was like playing ‘Russian roulette’.”

Ms Henderson put pressure on the state government and hire car industry to look into the issue as she said 25 per cent of reported accidents on the Great Ocean Road involved foreign drivers.

“The state Labor government must take much tougher action to improve international driver safety on and around the Great Ocean Road. Its head-in-thesand approach is simply untenable.

“It is also time the hire car industry was held to account for hiring vehicles to people who have inadequate driving skills. This practice is extremely dangerous and is putting lives at risk.”

She said the state government had not taken the issue seriously.

“Urgent action to improve international driver safety is particularly required on the Great Ocean Road, a very challenging road to drive, and on the tourist roads leading to the Great Ocean Road.”

State government Minister for Roads, Roads Safety and the TAC Jaala Pulford said that statistics showed international
drivers were no more at risk of accidents on local roads than interstate drivers.

“We have no plans to change the requirements for international drivers.

“We’ve already delivered a range of measures to help international visitors travel safely, including a new campaign targeting tourists, multilingual signage and line markings. We’d be happy to work with the federal government if they wanted to do more in this space – unfortunately it seems Sarah Henderson and the Liberals are more interested in
pointing fingers and playing grubby politics than finding solutions.”

Ms Henderson has launched a petitionabout the issue, which can be signed at sarahhenderson.com.au/petitions.