Volunteers in the west contribute 16,000 hours annually to local road safety activities according to a study which explores the level of contributions made to the road safety network.
Members of the Western Australian Local Government Association’s (WALGA) 4700-strong RoadWise community road safety network are being recognised in events across the State that acknowledge the important contribution of volunteers to the community as part of National Volunteers Week.
WALGA President Councillor Lynne Craigie said whilst many members of the community road safety network were volunteers with an interest in road safety and others had an official role through road safety partner agencies, everyone’s goal was the same – working together using the shared responsibility approach to achieve zero deaths and serious injuries on the roads.
“In many ways the contributions made by our network of road safety volunteers is invaluable.
The recently completed study which aimed to quantify the level of financial and in-kind contributions made by the road safety network found that individuals in the network contributed more than 4000 hours during the three-month reporting period.
“This reinforces the strength of the RoadWise Program’s well established partnership approach.
“To put an estimated dollar value on it, this study has shown that the community road safety network, supported by the WALGA RoadWise Program, generates contributions of more than $1.6 million dollars per year (based on 2015 estimated values) in in-kind and financial contributions to enable the implementation of local road safety activities.
“This is leveraged from the $1.8 million dollar support provided through the Road Trauma Trust Account and State Road Funds to Local Government Agreement funding allocations to the RoadWise Program (in 2015).
“The significance of this contribution cannot be underestimated and it is certainly cause for celebration.”
For further information on the Estimating the value of contributions to community level action for road safety report, or find out more about RoadWise volunteers, visit the RoadWise website at www.roadwise.asn.au
