'Road safety is everyone's business': Tracey receives award for work

The long-time Goulburn Mulwaree Council road safety officer shed a few tears after Rotary president, Steve Ruddell presented her with a Paul Harris Fellowship. The award is Rotary's highest honour and recognises members and others in the community who "go above and beyond" in their roles.

Mr Ruddell said Tracey had helped enormously with Rotary's driving programs, including U-Turn the Wheel, Grey Safety Day and the Log Book Run, and had more than filled the award's criteria.

Rotary member, Ian Radford, described her as an "organiser extraordinaire."

"I'm chuffed by that and it was a big surprise. That's why I was blubbering," Tracey told The Post.

It's just one more award she'll take with her upon her July retirement.

Tracey joined Goulburn Mulwaree 15 years ago and worked at the library and in various roles before she became road safety officer in 2013.

It seemed a natural progression. Husband, Ola, a former front-line police officer in Guyra, successfully applied for a transfer to Goulburn's Police Driver Training School.

Dinner time conversations sometimes centred on road safety but Tracey said she'd always been "almost anal" about the subject.

"People shouldn't be dying on our roads. There's no excuse for it," she said.

The learner driver log book run, U-turn the Wheel and Grey Safety Day, aimed at seniors, are just some of the programs she's supported. Other initiatives educated motorcyclists and truck drivers, the latter via 'Coffee with a Cop' days at Marulan.

"I found there was a gap with seniors because they get their licence and then there's nothing until they turn 75 or eighty-five," Tracey said.

"We put on a seniors run and that won a couple awards. There's a lot for learner drivers out there but not much for seniors but fatality numbers for (older people) are high and increasing."

Similarly, learner driver programs expose participants to rural roads, hill starts and other scenarios, beyond simply clocking up the necessary 120 hours for a licence.

She acknowledged road safety "wasn't sexy" but argued that behavioural change was more effective when the community "owned" it. She cited Rotary, Divall's Earthmoving and Bulk Haulage and the various private training programs as prime examples.

"Road safety is everybody's business...It's not just one person's job. I think that's what I've achieved," Tracey said.

"There's not much funding in it so I just have to do the best I can and make people aware."

That includes personal stories. She praised National Road Safety Week founders, Peter and Judy Frazer for their courage in speaking out after their daughter's death in 2012. Sarah Frazer's car had broken down on the Hume Highway at Mittagong and after a tow truck driver arrived to help her, both were struck and killed by a truck, driven by a "distracted driver."

Mr Frazer spoke about his family's experience at Tracey's first Road Safety Week in Goulburn.

"Gary Worboys (former Hume Police District commander and later NSW deputy police commissioner) was there and he stood up and said that he was a first responder that day. You could have heard a pin drop," she said.

"They just went up to each other and hugged...Peter and Judy are amazing and never stop (in their campaign)"

In her role, she has made presentations about her programs to the Australian College of Road Safety's annual conference five times. Tracey has also also spoken at a New Zealand forum and around NSW. In 2022 she won the council's employee of the year award.

If her council job isn't enough, she also works on weekends for Sydney based company, AMWC as a road safety auditor, which takes her all around NSW. Tracey is one of the few level three road safety auditors in the state.

She says the council is at the forefront of road safety and management, the mayor and councillors are very supportive of her work.

As Tracey prepares for her final road safety week, she has one message.

"Road safety is a community thing. It's not police wanting to make revenue; it's people wanting others to stop dying on roads, stop using mobile phones and stop driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs and all that sort of stuff. It is just horrendous," she said.

Tracey doesn't expect her passion for the subject to lessen in retirement but does plan to travel Australia for two months in a caravan with Ola, and play more golf.