WHEATBELT locals feel the WA Government is more interested in winning votes than saving lives.
Statistics released last week in a joint report commissioned by WA Police and the RAC show the Wheatbelt district fatalities almost double that of the next closest district with 30 fatalities and 24 serious injuries during 2011.
Wheatbelt farmer Syd Parsons, Narembeen, believes the current government isn't interested in the Wheatbelt region.
"The Government is more interested in putting a new pavement down in Victoria Park than fixing our roads, because it wins more votes," he said.
"Winning votes is all they are worried about."
Mr Parsons said he wasn't surprised that the Wheatbelt region was the most dangerous and had nearly twice as many fatalities than anywhere else in the State.
"The roads certainly aren't getting much money put into them," he said.
Like the majority of people living in the Wheatbelt region Mr Parsons believed the main problem with the roads was the width.
"There are large volumes of traffic all trying to use roads that just aren't wide enough," he said.
"Some trucks pull two and a half trailers and are 36.5 metres long.
"When you get them on roads that aren't quite wide enough and you have a caravan coming along the other way, they don't fit and both have to go onto the gravel.
"When the roads are like that they both get a bit of a sway up and anything can happen.
"It's definitely dangerous."
Wheatbelt Railway Retention Alliance and farmer Jane Fuchsbichler agrees that the roads in the Wheatbelt are highly dangerous and that was part of the reason why it was so important for the Tier Three rail lines to stay open.
Between 2001 and 2010, 740 people have been killed or seriously injured on roads in the Wheatbelt region.
Ms Fuchsbichler said that in March 2009 the Government introduced the Road Towards Zero program aiming at no more deaths or serious injuries on WA roads, but the very next year decided to close the Tier Three rail system.
"This puts between 57,000 to 85,000 extra trucks movements on roads, in an area that already has the highest road toll in WA," she said.
Ms Fuchsbichler said the state of the roads in the region was terrible and the government had been promising to do something about it for years.
"While the region will receive funding for road maintenance and improvements if the Tier Three rail is closed, it's certainly not going to be enough money to fix the problems," she said.
Narembeen Freightlines owner Rodney Sloth spends a large amount of time on the road carting grain and said Wheatbelt roads certainly needed more money tipped into them and he was not surprised by the high accident figures.
"The Wheatbelt has some terrible roads which is a shame," Mr Sloth said.
"Considering the region has been a broad sustainable tax generator for successive governments, there hasn't been much money tipped back into it, and that is reflected in the road toll."
With the alarming figures shown in the Fatal and Serious Injuries On WA Roads 2011 report Western Australian Local government Association (WALGA) president Troy Pickard said the Wheatbelt local governments were highly concerned about the rate of fatalities and serious injuries on roads throughout the region.
"WALGA prepared a business case which was presented to the Road Safety Council late last year which, in part, addressed the incidence of crashes on local roads in regional areas," he said.
"The association included this funding request as part of its budget submission to the State Government and is awaiting its consideration.
"It is the association's position that where possible freight should be carried on rail and in the instances where this does not occur, the road network be upgraded and maintained at a suitable standard to safely meet this task."
