Speed limits across WA would fall by 10km/h in one of the biggest shake-ups to the State’s road rules since the introduction of mandatory seatbelts.

The Weekend West can reveal the Road Safety Council has come up with two proposals — both involving dropping the speed limit — to slash the road toll over the next decade.

The Road Safety Council claims 1623 people will die and 15,955 will be injured in the decade from 2020 if WA’s road rules are unchanged.

But, under the most dramatic of the two proposals, only 1104 would die and 10,478 would be injured between 2020 and 2030.

The speed limit on all roads that are currently between 40km/h and 100km/h would fall by 10km/h. The speed limit of 110km/h zones — outside highways and freeways — would also fall by 10km/h, to 100km/h.

Camera Icon Road Safety Council chairman Iain Cameron. Credit: The Sunday Times, Justin Benson-Cooper.

Annual road safety funding would triple to between $150 million and $180 million.

A consultation period for WA’s new road safety strategy over the next decade will be launched today. Road Safety Council chairman Iain Cameron, said the proposed changes would be “challenging” for the community but WA was lagging behind the rest of Australia in making a dent in its road toll.

“Does our community think that’s good enough,” Mr Cameron said. “Other countries are starting to look at zero and at 50 per cent reductions by 2030.

“The council’s perspective is we would like the community to look at what is possible. This has to be all of us pushing in the same direction.”

About 40 per cent of fatalities on WA roads in the past 10 years happened on 110km/h speed limited roads. Mr Cameron said adopting shorter-term options such as speed limit reduction would save lives sooner than a gradual fall brought on by improvements to vehicle technology and road infrastructure.

Safer roads start with Zero Excuses

“If we could consider as a community some of those bold steps, we could get a quicker saving of people’s lives sooner,” he said.

Asked in April if speed limits could be cut in WA, Police Minister Michelle Roberts said “when it comes to saving lives, nothing is off the table”.

Lowering school zone speeds from 40km/h to 30km/h has not been included in the death and injury modelling by the Road Safety Council, but could be considered as part of the consultation process for the new strategy.

If we could consider as a community some of those bold steps, we could get a quicker saving of people’s lives sooner.

The report suggests introducing blood alcohol limits of zero and raising the age for P-plate drivers to 18 would not have much of an effect on the overall toll compared with dropping speed limits. Mr Cameron said one of the biggest improvements in recent years had been the decline in “risk-taking crashes” that involve speeding, drink driving and not wearing a seatbelt.

About 27 per cent of road deaths between 2008 and 2017 involved risk-taking behaviour. “Young drivers are safer today than they ever have been before,” he said.

“Today about 70 per cent of the crashes now are someone just making a mistake, being slightly tired, distracted or having a lapse in judgment.”

In the past 10 years there has been a 30 per cent reduction in road deaths in the State. WA’s road toll for 2019 sits at 80 after a death in a crash 120km west of Merredin this week and the State is on track for its worst toll since 2016.

Under the most dramatic of the Road Safety Council’s options, only 78 people would die on WA roads in 2030.

Mr Cameron said the economics of speed reduction stacked up as the increase to travel times would be “a couple of minutes” and vehicle wear and tear would be reduced.

“This is a head and heart issue,” he said. “The economics strongly favour slowing down.”

Mr Cameron said when default urban speed limits were dropped from 60km/h to 50km/h in 2001 it had been a major change for the public. “Twenty years on and people are happy with that,” he said.

“This is a significant opportunity. This is the first time in 10 years we’ve had the opportunity. We’ve made great process in the last 10 years of 30 per cent reduction of serious causalities on our roads. I think there will be a range of opinions.”

Community feedback in the consultation period will help develop a draft road safety strategy, which the Road Safety Council will present to the Government for consideration.

A consultation paper and survey will be available from 10am at imaginezero.rsc.wa. gov.au.