Road Safety Officer AGM Report July 2020

Road Safety Officer AGM Report:

Position Status Year’s End Summary:Over the past year we have applied for grants relating to motorcycle safety of over $40,000.00These grants are for-

• Motorcycle Safety Week $5,000.00
• National Road Safety Week $5,000.00
• Production of videos and printed material $30,000.00

These are all pending; however I have been informed that they have been approved, the delay seem to be a backlog due the Covid-19 shutdown.

Road Safety Report:

Motorcycle Safety Week October 10th – 17thI had a meeting with the Road Safety Commission to discuss their involvement with the Motorcycle Safety Week following the application for grant. They are keen to be involved with our Motorcycle Safety Week and in particular our Motorcycle Safety Forum and our social media strategy for the week.Key points of our 2020 Motorcycle Safety Week are –Saturday 10^th October – Motorcycle Safety Forum.Sunday 11^th October – Motorcycle First Aid Courses.Wednesday 14^th October – Ride Your Motorbike To Work Day.Saturday 16^th October – MRA Safety Day Ride.Sunday 17^th October – Motorcycle Skills Enhancement Course.All week – Main Roads VMS motorcycle safety messages.All week – Social media motorcycle safety posts.All week – TV and Radio interviews and messages.They are keen to be involved with our Motorcycle Safety Forum.We intend to ask motorcycle riders for their ideas on what action they think will make the biggest change to rider safety, through an online survey and rider suggestions. This will form the basis of the Motorcycle Safety Forum discussions and workshop.The Road Safety Commission is also indicated that they keen to set up regular monthly meeting with us to work through issue and establish a year long safety message social media campaign to motorcycle riders.The MRAWA were heavily involved with the public consultation in regards to the 2020-2028 WA Road Safety Strategy and we lodged an submission focused on motorcycle safety to the WA Government through the Road Safety Commission on this action.We have also submitted our MRAWA  input into the 2020 Federal Road Safety Strategy.The Vulnerable Road User Advisory Group was officially disbanded in December, this move was supported by the MRAWA as it was thought that the group had run its course and was more about cyclists than the overall vulnerable road users as a whole. We will now have an annual vulnerable Road User Forum and the MRAWA are holding direct regular meetings with the Road Safety Commission and this is working very well for motorcycle riders being represented and considered.I had a meeting with the WA Road Safety Commission recently regarding their recommendation and the decision by the Minister to not allow motorcycles to use dedicated bus lanes, following our response to them that we do not believe that this decision was based on actuate research.I requested all of the research that their recommendation was based on. They have now given me their research and the results from the trial of motorcycles in bus lanes from the Department of Transport and I am working through that and research from other sources to hopefully challenge the decision.I have requested a meeting with the Hon Michelle Roberts MLA (Minister for Road Safety) to discuss issues including –

• Lane filtering.
• Bus lane use.
• Enhanced crash investigation regarding motorcycle riders.

A dedicated Motorcycle Safety position located within a government department possibly the Road Safety Commission, Main Roads or Department of Transport similar the current position for cyclists.

AMC Report:

We have joined with the Australian Automobile Association to call on the Federal Governments Transport and Infrastructure Council to adopt a response to road trauma in a similar way as was used for the Coronavirus pandemic, in there is real time reporting of crashes with actions to combat the issues.Dave Wright - Safety Officer/Life Member #6