Rodney Stevens

As residents constantly complain about the condition of the region’s roads it has been revealed that a miniscule 0.1 per-cent of North Coast roads are rated 5 stars, while a paltry 0.3 per-cent of roads across the state received the same five-star rating.

The Australian Roads Assessment Program AusRAP has just completed a study of 18,805 km of roads across NSW which reveals the dire state our roads are in.

AusRAP is an internationally recognised road safety assessment system, used in more than 100 countries, which provides a one-to-five-star safety rating for roads.

Alarmingly, 15 per-cent of the state’s roads received a one-star rating, while on the North Coast 25.5 per-cent or one quarter of our roads were rated one star.

The lowest safety rating was also recorded across more than one-quarter of the road network across the South Coast with 28 per-cent, and the New England with 25.5 per-cent.

In what may not be a surprise to many, only 17.6 per-cent of North Coast roads were rated four or five stars.

Of the 2808.6 km of North Coast roads rated by AusRAP, 0.1 per-cent were rated five star, 17.5 per-cent four star, 39.2 per-cent three star, 17.6 per-cent two star, and 25.5 per-cent one star.

NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury said the fact that the total length of NSW roads to receive the maximum five-star safety rating is less than one per-cent should concern policymakers.

“Australians will contribute over $23 billion to the Federal Government through the Fuel Excise this year alone – they have earnt the right to drive on safe roads and to have real-time data and information on the safety features of the roads they drive on every day,” he said.

“As the Australian Government looks to re-focus its infrastructure funding priorities there are two critical statistics it must keep in mind only 0.3 per cent of the state’s roads are deemed to be truly safe and the national road toll is seven per cent higher than the same time last year.

“More of the fuel excise must go back into building safer roads and all available data on road safety must be made publicly available in real-time, because if we don’t have a clear and current grasp on the problems how do we expect, as a nation, to fix them?”