SWAN Hill Police’s traffic cops have declared 2012 a success, despite statistics revealing a rise in fatalities.
The end of 2012 brought the final provisonal road tally to 279 for Victoria, and five for the Swan Hill region.
Swan Hill saw just one, two and two fatalities in 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively, but police played down concerns about last year’s jump to five.
“We had an increase, but they’re only very low numbers,” Acting Sergeant Wayne Cook said.
“The road toll itself hasn’t been too bad.
“But people are still dying on our roads through inexperience, fatigue, speed, drink driving and not wearing seatbelts.”
Three of last year’s five fatalities were single vehicle crashes, where the vehicle veered off the road.
Sergeant Cook said fatigue and a lack of knowledge of local roads were significant factors in those incidents.
For more on this story, see Monday’s edition of The Guardian (07/01/13).
