This finding comes from new research released by the Australian Road Safety Foundation.
Two-thirds of the Victorian population live in urban areas and rarely use the rural road network, but rural roads still claimed the most lives in 2021.
This unbalanced death toll has prompted the ARSF to remind people that safety on rural roads isn’t just for locals but also visitors from the city — especially those road tripping in unfamiliar areas.
ARSF founder Russell White said the most concerning part of the research was the number of respondents who admitted to both unpreparedness and bad behaviour — a lethal combination when travelling in isolated areas.
“Along with five in 10 drivers not making sure their vehicles are safe for a road trip, there’s a very clear issue with drivers being completely vulnerable to dangerous driving conditions that are often more prevalent in regional areas,” Mr White said.
“Unbelievably, more than four in 10 (46 per cent) don’t even check the weather forecast before hitting the road for a long distance drive.”
Those who live in Melbourne and are least familiar with rural driving were the most guilty of these behaviours.
But it wasn’t just Melburnians behaving badly in the research.
All Victorians were caught demonstrating poor attitudes towards road safety.
When it comes to breaking road rules in rural areas, drivers admitted their main excuses were: believing it was safe to do so (18 per cent), being distracted (18 per cent) and simply trusted they won’t get caught by police (seven per cent).
Rural Road Safety Month runs every September and aims to educate all road users on the challenges of rural driving.
