The NSW government has set a target of halving the statewide road toll by 2030, but Wagga experts have questioned how this could be achieved without major changes to technology.
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The 2026 Road Safety Action Plan highlighted road safety upgrades to country roads via full median and roadside safety barriers, rumble strips and wide centrelines to help reduce regional road deaths.
The $250 million plan was launched on a long weekend that saw two major road incidents on the Olympic Highway on the same day, including a crash that tragically killed a motorcyclist south of Cowra.
Minister for Regional Roads Sam Farraway said rural and regional NSW would continue to be a key focus of the plan to do better than last year's road toll of 270, which was the lowest since 1923.
"People living in regional NSW typically spend more time on the road, driving further, and at higher speeds where safety infrastructure can make a life-saving difference," Mr Farraway said.
Wagga driving instructor Glen Gaudron said it would take substantial changes in technology or a major increase in police patrols to halve the road toll.
"It's pie-in-the-sky; they pick these numbers out and there's no justification on how they could do that," he said.
"In that time they might think there will be a lot more self-driving cars but the way things are going at the present, I can't see it happening."
The plan also called for "reviews of high-risk, default speed zones on low-quality, high-speed country roads".
Wagga road safety columnist Bruce Harper said the government should invest in more driver education as a lack of skill could be deadly despite all else.
"The driver sitting in the driving seat of the best car on the best road will still have a crash if he or she is incompetent, and they will still kill themselves," he said.
"When it comes to getting the toll right down under 200, this element must come into it and at this point it is no more there than it was 10 years ago."
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