Interested residents with something to say about road safety are being invited to attend a road safety forum in Portland on Thursday night.
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South-west police road safety adviser Senior Sergeant Chris Asenjo said the forum would be held between 5.45pm and 7.30pm at the Portland Yacht Club on Lee Breakwater Road in Portland.
"Due to the unprecedented road trauma across the state, government agencies, partners and interested members of the community are invited to attend the forum," he said.
The current Victorian road toll is 184, up a stunning 63 deaths on the same time last year.
In the south-west there have been 10 lives lost on the roads compared to eight for all of last year.
Senior Sergeant Asenjo said the forum was an opportunity for people to come together to talk about road safety and what can be done as individuals and a community.
"It's an opportunity to come and have your say in a constructive way," he said.
"To think about how driving, riding and walking can be made safer.
"We've had a range of collisions in the south-west which has prompted a number of operations, mainly focused on high speed collisions on rural roads."
However, the road safety adviser said the results from the police operations indicated that the safety message was simply not getting through to drivers.
Early this month 10 motorists lost their drivers licences after being caught at more than 25km/h over the speed limit during the three-day Operation Verat.
One of those drivers was a 58-year-old school teacher clocked at 132km/h after he passed an unmarked police car along Foxhow Road, who then expressed his displeasure at losing his licence for three months.
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"This forum is about not only government agencies and partners getting together but also about community feedback," Senior Sergeant Asenjo said.
"If people across the south-west have ideas, come and talk about them, about what we should be doing and what we can do differently to be more effective, to save lives."
The road safety chief said the forum was a lead-up to the national day of road safety policing to be held on Tuesday next week.
Anyone interested in attending the Portland road safety forum can register here.
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