Five states achieve zero road deaths of Fatality Free Friday
Yesterday, Tasmania, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory and South Australia achieved zero road deaths on Fatality Free Friday.
In its seventh year, Fatality Free Friday asks road users to make a promise that they will consciously exercise road safety and obey road rules with the aim of going one day without road fatality.
Tragically, six Australians lost their lives in fatal accidents yesterday – three in Victoria, two in Queensland and one in New South Wales.
Australian Road Safety Foundation CEO Russell White comments: “While the ultimate goal of Fatality Free Friday is zero deaths on our roads, these tragic events reinforce the importance of promoting road safety,”
“One death on our roads is one too many – on any day of the year – and our hearts go out to the loved ones of today’s victims,”
“Despite yesterday’s tragic event this year’s Fatality Free Friday reached a record number of road users and encouraged more drivers than ever to actively drive safely – a behaviour we hope they will keep up today, tomorrow and so on,”
“We’ve had more than 50,000 road users make a road safety promise and we’re expecting that number to rise by the thousands as additional pledges from yesterday’s events in Sydney, Brisbane and Geelong are counted.”
“This year also saw an unprecedented amount of support from government leaders, police and organisations to help us spread the safety message far and wide. We’ll continue this momentum in our commitment to reducing the road toll throughout the year and for Fatality Free Friday in 2014,” Mr White added.
Fatality Free Friday is held on the last Friday of May every year. The initiative is sponsored by Caltex, Suncorp Insurance, Monroe Shock Absorbers, Queensland Government and Queensland Rail.