Bacchus Marsh-Gisborne Road was rated as the worst road in the Moorabool, after new data revealing the most dangerous roads in Victoria has been released.
The Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP) road safety star ratings covers major arterial and highway networks in metropolitan and regional Victoria and rates sections of roads between one to five stars with a lower star rating identifying a road as more dangerous.
Within the Moorabool municipality, Bacchus Marsh-Gisborne road placed as the worst-rated overall, with a 1.9 out of five star rating for safety.
According to the data, on this 32.3-kilometre link that carries approximately 54.7 million vehicle kilometres a year.
The sections of Bacchus Marsh-Gisborne Road within the Moorabool boundaries considered most dangerous was a 3.2-kilometre stretch between Darley and Diggers Rest-Coimadai Road, which received a 1.7-star rating.
There were six fatal and serious injury crashes recorded in the five years between 2019 and 2023 on that section.
A three-kilometre stretch beginning after Lebrex Road in Coimadai with a 1.6-star rating. with four fatal and serious injury crashes
Another section of road in Moorabool rated below two stars in the data was a three-kilometre section of Diggers Rest-Coimadai Road between Long Forest Road and Cornwall Park Court, with a rating of 1.9 stars.
In this segment, there were four fatal and serious injury crashes between 2019 and 2023.
AusRAP ratings are calculated using a range of risk factors and information.
The information can be overlaid with crash data to understand how infrastructure contributes to crashes and crash outcomes.
RACV head of policy James Williams said the release of AusRAP ratings was an important step towards improving road safety and reducing the risk of serious injury and fatalities on Victorian roads.
“We know that there are limited funds for road upgrades, and AusRAP provides governments with the data to be more targeted and to make decisions from a safety-first perspective,” Mr Williams said.
RACV said it supports upgrading all major roads to a minimum three-star AusRAP safety rating, with all new roads designed and built to at least four stars.
