Council's Black Spot Funding Proves Lifesaving for the Penrith LGA

Thursday, 4 July 2024

Penrith City Council’s commitment to upgrading road blackspots through the Australian Government Black Spot Program has seen a 519% reduction in traffic accidents.

At last Monday’s Ordinary Meeting, Councillors were given the results of an evaluation of the Australian Government Black Spot Program which showed Council’s work in ensuring local roads are safe is seeing tangible results.

Council has been active in securing funding under the Australian Government Black Spot Funding Program over many years and the data proves its success. The accident reduction values are impressive and highlight the significant decreases in casualty related accidents on Penrith’s roads.

Council’s Traffic and Transport Engineering team analysed the 5-year accident data from 2018-2022 for the Black Spot projects delivered over the three financial years from 2014/15 to 2016/17. The results found that there was a total of 78 accidents potentially prevented (including 42 casualty crashes potentially prevented) being an average of a 519% reduction across 15 sites.

This equates to a cost saving of just over $25.3 million dollars to the community if the accident trends before the Black Spot improvements had continued.

Penrith Mayor Todd Carney expressed his gratitude and praised the hard work Council Officers have undertaken to ensure our roads are safe.

“I’m extremely proud of the work that Council continues to do in the space of road safety. By analysing the data on problem areas and applying for funding that addresses specific sites within our road network that need improvement, we’ve been able to save lives in our community,” Cr Carney said.

“The Australian Government Black Spot Program has proven to be exceptionally beneficial to the Penrith LGA and I credit this to the staff who were involved in the process of accessing accident potential.”

“Council has and will continue to advocate for funding for road infrastructure that delivers a road network that is safe, and one that connects our city in an efficient way.”

Information contained within this news release was correct as at Thursday, 4 July 2024.