It’s a fact of life that people lose their lives on the best of roads and the worst of roads.

It only takes a moment of inattention, a couple of drinks under your belt or the more recent scourge of drug-driving to bring about death or serious injury.

And of course so often it’s the fault of someone else, a stranger who takes their life into their own hands with reckless driving, only to instead inflict untold harm on an innocent stranger.

There can be no doubt though that good roads play a part in keeping us all that much safer.

It is especially the case in rural and regional areas.

In the city, unless you’re on the outskirts, an under-funded road usually means it’s single-lane when the traffic would justify double lanes.

It might mean the surface is getting a bit rough and needs to be re-laid, or there’s a few too many potholes.

But in the country it’s usually far worse. Most often it’s a single lane with a surface breaking up and a verge that’s crumbling away.

Often there isn’t enough room for vehicles heading in opposite directions to pass safely.

Instead, motorists have to move off the bitumen onto the dirt or that terrible slip-zone right on the edge.

The difficulties are magnified when it’s night when it can be hard to even see – remember, there’s no street lights – the road’s edge or to pick-up in your headlights a stretch that requires even more care because of its poor state.

Throw large trucks into the equation and the challenges become abundantly clear.

It is tremendous news then that Greater Hume Shire has now completed what it has touted as one of its biggest projects in recent times.

The council has just finished a $3.5 million reconstruction on what has been considered a notorious 2.3-kilometre section of the Jingellic Road.

It is significant that this is a major link between the Hume Highway and the Upper Murray area.

As mayor Heather Wilton says, “it was a very narrow, winding, steep gradient with nowhere to pull off if you got into trouble”.

On top of that, the council reckons the major benefits for B-double transports will include an estimated 30 new jobs and 100 indirect jobs thanks to shorter travel times.