State spends millions in Black Spot Program road upgrades

The Black Spot Program allocated just over $8m towards regional road upgrades, which includes $33,000 towards resealing part of York-Williams Road, and another $30,000 towards a constructed roundabout in Northam.

Other regional projects will take place in the City of Kalgoorlie Boulder, the Shire of Carnarvon, and the Shire of Derby West Kimberley.

Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said road safety required "ongoing effort and investments".

"The program aims to further improve road safety across the State, reducing the significant trauma and suffering of crash victims and their loved ones by targeting sites with a proven crash history or those with a high risk," Ms Saffioti said.

RAC general manager Will Golsby said it was good to see more locations being targeted in the Black Spot Program.

"Western Australia is consistently one of the worst States in the nation when it comes to road trauma, and our regional communities are some of the most dangerous places to drive anywhere in the country," Mr Golsby said.

"Many parts of our regional road network can be unforgiving of mistakes, with high-speed two-way traffic, roadside hazards such as trees and in some cases, a lack of safety features such as line marking, sealed shoulders or safety barriers."

Mr Golsby said RAC was advocating for a new program in addition to the current Black Spot Program, to apply low-cost safety treatments to high speed sealed roads.

These roads account for half of all deaths and serious injuries which occur on regional roads.

Last year, RAC conducted a 'Risky Roads' survey to help identify regional hot spots.

Several roads in the south made it into the top 10, including South Western Highway, Albany Highway, South Coast Highway, Great Southern Highway and the Denmark-Mt Barker Road.

These roads were found to have narrow lanes or bridges, poor road surface quality, a lack of opportunities for overtaking and blind crests.

Three intersections along Forrest Highway also made it onto the list of top 10 dangerous intersections, as well as an additional six intersections in the South West.

East Hyden Bin Road and Hyden-Lake King Road were also identified as a dangerous intersection, for having narrow lanes and lacking a chance to turn and cross traffic.