Penrith City Council says its commitment to upgrading road blackspots through the Australian Government Black Spot Program has seen a 519% reduction in traffic accidents.
At this week’s Ordinary Meeting, Councillors received the results of an evaluation of the Australian Government Black Spot Program, which showed Council’s work in ensuring local roads are safe is seeing tangible results.
Council’s Traffic and Transport Engineering team analysed the five-year accident data from 2018-2022 for the Black Spot projects delivered over the three financial years from 2014/15 to 2016/17. The results found that there was a total of 78 accidents potentially prevented (including 42 casualty crashes potentially prevented) being an average of a 519% reduction across 15 sites.
This equates to a cost saving of just over $25.3 million dollars to the community if the accident trends before the Black Spot improvements had continued.
Mayor, Todd Carney, praised the hard work Council Officers have undertaken to ensure local roads are safe.
“I’m extremely proud of the work that Council continues to do in the space of road safety. By analysing the data on problem areas and applying for funding that addresses specific sites within our road network that need improvement, we’ve been able to save lives in our community,” Mayor Carney said.
“The Australian Government Black Spot Program has proven to be exceptionally beneficial to the Penrith LGA and I credit this to the staff who were involved in the process of accessing accident potential.
“Council has and will continue to advocate for funding for road infrastructure that delivers a road network that is safe, and one that connects our city in an efficient way,” he said.