Residents and visitors to Busselton, Dunsborough and Yallingup are reminded that they are responsible for being safe road users this festive season.

The White Ribbons^TM for Road Safety campaign is starting for another year and the City of Busselton is joining forces with the WALGA RoadWise Program to promote WA's road safety vision in the lead up to Christmas.

City of Busselton President, Ian Stubbs said the White Ribbons campaign had a slightly different focus in 2009, promoting the ‘Towards Zero' vision in line with the state's road safety strategy.

"The new WA road safety strategy recognises that we should not accept anyone should die or be seriously injured on our roads," Cr Stubbs said.  

"As visitors drive into the Busselton townsite, they will be greeted with a huge banner reminding them to be responsible and safe drivers and to enjoy driving in our Shire."

"As part of the safe system, road users are still responsible for behaving safely, complying with all road rules and purchasing vehicles with good safety features.

"So I am urging the residents of our town to take responsibility for their safety on our roads this festive season and come back safely in the New Year," he said.

Residents are reminded not to drink and drive, don't drive tired, wear a seatbelt no matter how short the journey and don't speed.

If you are thinking about buying a new car in 2010, make sure you consider the safety of the car and the protection it provides - aim for a four or five-star rating.  To find out more about the safety of your car, visit http://www.rac.com.au/.

Responsibility for road safety rests with each of us.

The White Ribbons^TM for Road Safety campaign will run from 15 November 2009 through until 4 January 2010.  White Ribbons are available free of charge from participating police stations.

For more information about the campaign, visit http://www.roadwise.asn.au/.

Ends.

Media enquiries can be directed to the City of Busselton's Public Relations Officer, Helena Webb on 97810446 or helena.webb@busselton.wa.gov.au

Facts about the safe system and shared responsibility

In a safe system, designers are responsible for planning, designing and influencing a road system which recognises and caters for both human mistakes and the limits of human tolerance to violent forces.

Road users are responsible for behaving safely, complying with all road rules and purchasing vehicles with good safety features.

The four cornerstones of the safe system include:

• Safe speeds
• Safe roads and roadsides
• Safe vehicles
• Safe road use.

The towards zero vision is a long term view in which we no longer accept that any human being should be killed or serious injured on our state's roads.

The vision calls for a fundamental shift in the way we think about road safety and what we are prepared to accept.

As part of the vision, we need to make changes which account for the fact that:

• People make mistakes and take risks on our roads
• There is only a certain amount of force or energy that our bodies can tolerate before survival and recovery from injury are not possible.

The safe system aims to manage the interaction between the road user, the road and roadside, travel speeds and the vehicle.

We need to design a road system that is inherently safe so that when crashes do happen, death and serious injuries can be avoided.