Government admits it is failing on road safety

AN 18-year-old man has been charged after a 17-year-old girl was killed in a crash, as the state government conceded it is failing to deliver on its promise to reduce road deaths.

A 17-year-old girl died when the car she was travelling crashed into a parked car. Picture: Steve Harris

THE state government has conceded it is failing to deliver on its promise to reduce road deaths by 30 per cent after a horror 2017.

The final figure for last year was 392 fatalities, an increase of 12 on the previous year and the highest number of deaths since 2010.

Shortly after midnight yesterday, just minutes into the new year, a 17-year-old girl was killed in a crash in Western Sydney, when the small car in which she was a passenger smashed into a parked car at Yagoona. A second female passenger remains in hospital in a serious condition. The 18-year-old driver was unharmed and has been charged with several offences, including dangerous driving occasioning death.

The record holiday road toll of 28 since December 15 has been described as “very traumatic”. Picture: Steve Harris

Two more deaths followed yesterday morning, with a 75-year-old man dying in a single-car rollover in the state’s northwest and a male pedestrian killed near Newcastle.

Roads Minister Melinda Pavey said despite the government making little progress in its attempts to reduce the road toll by at least 30 per cent — or fewer than 236 — by 2021, “that doesn’t mean we’re going to give up”.

“We are prepared to have an ambitious target because that’s what we want to achieve, that’s what the community wants us to achieve,” she said. “Since 2009, when the road toll hit 408, we were seeing a steady decline year on year but the recent spikes in the road toll have been incredibly disappointing.”

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Michael Corboy said yesterday’s deaths were “a very bad start to the year”. He said the record holiday road toll of 28 since December 15 had been “very traumatic”.

“Toughest two weeks”: NSW Police Assistant Commissioner, Michael Corboy. Picture: Justin Lloyd

“It’s probably the toughest two weeks I’ve seen,” he said.

Farjana Akter, 22, lives at the Yagoona home in front of which the crash occurred. “They were coming very fast you could hear the noise from the car,” she said. “It is very sad.”

Ms Pavey warned that speed had been the biggest contributor to last year’s terrible statistics. “In 2017, as with 2016, speed was the biggest killer, with 168 people losing their lives because someone was driving too fast. That is more than 40 per cent of our road toll,” she said.

Figures from the Centre for Road Safety showed that someone was killed or injured on NSW roads every 42 minutes and heavy truck deaths had increased by 25, to 81 fatalities. Ms Pavey has referred that issue to the parliamentary Staysafe Road Safety Committee.

It comes as Home and Away actor Jessica Falkholt continues her fight for life at St George Hospital after a horrific Boxing Day crash that killed her parents and 21-year-old sister Annabelle on the south coast.