Hume Road Safety Program

What we're doing

The Hume region will be made safer thanks to the Road Safety Program designed to reduce road trauma and save lives.

The Road Safety Program supports the fast roll-out of lifesaving road safety treatments on rural and regional roads and promotes greater protection for vulnerable road users, like cyclists and pedestrians.

In the Hume region, safety improvements include:

Safety upgrades to prevent head-on and run-off-road collisions

Roads to undergo improvements:

• Georges Creek Road, Georges Creek
• Mansfield-Whitfield Road, Whitlands
• Heathcote-Nagambie Road
• Shelley-Walwa Road

Where we’re installing flexible safety barriers in high-risk locations:

• Midland Highway, Cosgrove South – underway

Roads where we’ve completed safety upgrades:

• Murray Valley Highway in multiple locations – underway
• Murray River Road in multiple locations – underway
• Kiewa Valley Highway, north of Boyd Road – underway
• Omeo Hwy, Tallangatta – from mid-December 2021
• Marysville-Woods Point Road, Marysville – from mid-December 2021
• Barmah-Shepparton Road, Bunbartha – from mid-December 2021

In 2015, head-on and run-off-road collisions were the most common type of crashes in Victoria being responsible for about 40 per cent of Victoria’s road deaths and serious injuries.

The road safety infrastructure that we’re delivering is helping to reduce deaths and serious injuries on high-risk Victorian roads. The total deaths and serious injuries caused by head-on and run-off-road crashes has dropped by two thirds on the first 20 roads treated with flexible safety barriers – from 120 people in 2015 to 41 people in 2019.

This program will help make the roads we travel on safer with treatments including, road surface treatments and infrastructure to increase awareness of hazards.

Safety upgrades to prevent intersection collisions

Intersections being treated include:  

• Hume Freeway, Jones Road and Tarcombe Road, Avenel.

Intersections pose a significant safety risk on our road network. With motorists, pedestrians and cyclists making turns and crossing paths, the risk of a crash is very high. Collisions at intersections have been the cause of an average of 30 per cent of deaths and 42 per cent of serious injuries on Victorian roads over the past five years from January 2015 to December 2019.

Through the program, various high-risk intersections will become safer with treatments including new roundabouts, traffic signal modifications at traffic lights, turning lanes, new splitter islands and bell mouth widening.

Safety upgrades to prevent collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists

Pedestrian and cyclist areas being treated include: 

• Northern Highway, Kilmore 
• Rail Trail Cycling Separation Projects in multiple locations
• Safer Cycling Corridors in multiple locations
• Beechworth to Yackandandah Rail Trail
• Australian Christian College on Benalla-Winton Road, Benalla
• Murchison Primary School on Bendigo-Murchison Road, Murchison
• St Joseph's Catholic School on Barooga-Cobram Road, Cobram
• Hawdon Street, Shepparton.

Pedestrians and cyclists are completely exposed to the full force of a crash, making them some of our most vulnerable road users. Research shows that if a pedestrian or cyclist is hit by a car travelling at 60km/h they are unlikely to survive. In fact, a pedestrian’s or cyclist’s risk of death or serious injury increases where vehicles are traveling at speeds of 30 km/h and upwards.

Treatments delivered through the program will create a safer environment for pedestrians and cyclists with treatment including electronic speed limit signs, pathway connectivity, rail trail and on road cycling paths and audio clicking at traffic lights.

Why we're doing it

Infrastructure plays a vital role in preventing serious crashes. It also helps to reduce the severity of crashes when they’re unavoidable.

Mistakes happen, which as humans we can’t always avoid. What we can do is build more forgiving road infrastructure so that when a mistake does happen on the road, it doesn’t cost a life.

These upgrades are being delivered by Regional Roads Victoria in partnership with the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) as we continue to work to deliver safer, connected journeys in Victoria, while supporting our economic recovery.