Despite three separate road crashes within hours on Good Friday - which killed one person and injured many others in and around Ararat - and the repeated warnings from our emergency services, the behaviour of some drivers travelling in the Wimmera during the past week has been nothing short of astounding.

Sure, bad behaviour does, and will, happen every day. But it's exacerbated at times, like this past week, when traffic on the Western Highway increases as people travel through, or to, the region for their Easter and school holidays.

On Friday morning alone, traffic travelling west along the Western Highway to Horsham was almost bumper to bumper; then, as people returned home on Monday, police were making their presence known. Yet the risky behaviour continues. Impatient drivers overtaking when it's unsafe - or illegal - to do so. Careless drivers entering intersections without taking the appropriate time and care to check their route is clear. Distracted drivers on mobile phones. And that's only what's visible to other users on the road.

Crash data from the Transport Accident Commission paints a sobering picture. To date, more than 100 people have lost their lives on Victorian roads in 2019 - an increase of more than 60 per cent compared to the same period, the previous year.

Half of all lives lost on Victorian roads in 2018 occurred in regional areas - yet only 24 per cent of the state's population lives outside the metropolitan area. The majority of deaths occurred on roads with speed limits of 100 kilometres an hour.

The TAC has also stepped away from referring to the "road toll" and instead uses the term "lives lost".

"The problem with talking about 'road toll' is that it implies that road trauma is an acceptable cost of having roads. A toll is the price we pay for using something - with toll roads, for example, it's a few dollars," the TAC says.

"Road toll wording also has the effect of dehumanising road trauma. By reducing people's lives to a number, it makes it easier for the community to feel distanced from the issue. These are not just numbers, they are people - someone's child, mother, father, sister, brother, friend or colleague."

What acts will you take to keep you, and others, safe?

Jessica Grimble, editor