A year ago, Canberra had its worst National Road Safety Week outcome in a decade.
Four people died on the territory's roads that week, including the horrific crash on Hindmarsh Drive on May 19, 2022, which claimed the life of a blameless 20-year-old, Matthew McLuckie. He was killed when his car was hit head-on by a woman driving on the wrong side of the dual-lane carriageway.
By the end of May last year, nine people had died on ACT roads. By the end of the year, that number had doubled as the territory recorded its worst road toll in 12 years.
This year's ACT road toll stands at two, but a further six people have been killed in crashes just over the border, including the deaths of four people in a head-on between two utes on the Barton Highway, near Murrumbateman, on Easter Friday.
A national road safety action plan was agreed to by all state and territory ministers in December last year and the ACT government will announce its own version of that later this year.
The national strategy which underpins it, and runs through until 2030, was described as taking a "new approach in its delivery".
Hugely ambitious targets have been set for the next seven years, including reducing fatalities by 50 per cent and serious road injuries by 30 per cent.
Progress to date this year has been poor. To the end of March, the national road toll stood at 312, 12 higher than for the same period last year. December last year, the first lengthy holiday travel period after the full relaxation of COVID restrictions, was a particularly awful month on our roads with 123 people killed.
National Road Safety Week is an initiative which began in tragedy.
Sarah Frazer, 23, was on her way to university in Wagga Wagga in 2012 when her car overheated on the Hume Highway in the NSW Riverina.
A local tow truck driver, Geoff Clark, went to her assistance and was loading up her car on the shoulder of the highway when both people were hit and killed by a passing courier truck driven by 26-year-old Kaine Barnett. The court heard it was not an act of recklessness, nor indifference by Barnett that caused the incident, but a moment of inattention.
The Safer Australian Roads And Highways (SARAH) group was formed to highlight road safety issues, asking people to go online and pledge to "drive so that others survive". The pledge is again posted online at roadsafetyweek.com.au and some of the national capital's institutions will be lit up in yellow this week.
ACT Transport Minister Chris Steel acknowledged a terrible year on Canberra's roads in 2022, adding the government had a strong focus on improving road safety legislation.
"It's important every single one of us on the road take responsibility for other road users," he said.
"We're asking Canberrans to take the pledge to keep others safe on our roads."
The ACT is planning a major change to road signage and markings, and also next year consult on dropping the speed limit on suburban local streets from 50km/h to 40km/h.
More separated infrastructure for walking and cycling has been foreshadowed. Trip counters will be installed on key active travel routes so the government can measure how many people are using the infrastructure, along with converting more on-road cycle lanes to separated cycleways.
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