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Recently there have been around 1700 road deaths and more than 22 000 serious injuries in Australia each year.

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, over 171 000 Australians have been killed in road crashes, compared with 100 000 Australians killed in all the wars of that century. That’s almost twice as many Australians dying as a result of road crashes than in all the wars in the last century combined. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics: Road crashes were the 10th leading cause of death in Australia. Road crashes accounted for 22% of deaths due to external causes (accidents, poisoning and violence). Every 22 minutes, someone is killed or seriously injured on Australia’s roads.

Do the rates differ between the states?
The Australian rate of road crash deaths was 8.2 per 100 000 people in 2003. As would be expected, most deaths occurred in the most populated states of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

Table 1 Deaths and death rate per 100 000 people by state/territory 2003

Findings

• The Northern Territory has over three times the national death rate.
• The ACT has less than half the national rate.
• When this information was compared with the data from 1999 it showed the most dramatic reduction in road deaths occurred in Victoria, beginning in 2002, coinciding with the introduction of stricter speed enforcement measures.

Which road activities are most dangerous on Australian roads?
Of the 1634 Australian road deaths in 2003, 72% were motor vehicle occupants:

• Drivers 46%
• Passengers 26%

The remainder were:

• Pedestrians 14%
• Motorcycle riders 11%
• Bicyclists 2%
• Motorcycle pillion riders 1%

Links
Australia in the world
National Road Safety Strategy