Recent data on vehicle crashes shows Dubbo's highways are collision hot spots.
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There were 805 crashes in the Dubbo local government area in the five years between 2018 and 2022. Of those, 22 had fatalities.
Another 175 crashes resulted in serious injuries, 270 in moderate injuries and 84 with minor injuries. There were 253 non-casualty towaways.
The Mitchell Highway between Dubbo and Wellington is a common place for crashes. There were 27 recorded on the 52 kilometre stretch of road, including a fatality in 2022.
The Newell Highway between Dubbo and Tomingley has also been a hotspot with 12 crashes, including a fatality.
Looking at road within the city, the stretch of the Golden Highway between the Emile Serisier Bridge and Dubbo Hospital has had a high number of crashes. There were 35 crashes recorded during the five years.
It includes eight at the Fitzroy Street roundabout.
Transport for NSW's 2026 Road Safety Action Plan says someone is killed or hospitalised every 46 minutes because of a crash on NSW roads.
Two-thirds of the states fatalities are on country roads, according to the safety action plan, where the fatality rate is almost four times as high than on urban roads.
The NSW's target is for zero road fatalities and serious injuries by 2050. To get there, the goal is for fatalities to be halved by 2030 and serious injuries to be reduced by 30 per cent.
In the road safety plan, Minister for Regional Transport for Roads Jenny Aitchison said the statistics showed "a staggering and sobering difference" between country and metropolitan roads. She said it indicated there was more work to be done in regional areas.
"Understanding the significant differences in the regional road toll will help us implement targeted road safety measures that will ensure we achieve our road toll goals. For example, we know that around three-quarters of deaths on country roads involved a vehicle leaving its path," Ms Aitchison said.
"Infrastructure treatments such as safety barriers, audio tactile line marking, and curve widening can reduce this, and in turn can contribute to reducing fatalities and injuries."
She said the NSW government was committed to addressing road safety issues to reduce the impact of road trauma int he community.
Orlander Ruming
Deputy editor at the Daily Liberal, covering council, politics, human interest stories, community news and everything in between.
Deputy editor at the Daily Liberal, covering council, politics, human interest stories, community news and everything in between.
