Who crashes?

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South Australian research tells us that there are particular groups of South Australians who are more at risk of death and injury on the road.

These groups are:

• Young people
• People who are older
• Aboriginal people
• People on the road not in vehicles
• Men.

South Australian research into drivers responsible for serious and fatal crashes found that responsibility for crashing was high for drivers under 25 years, then declined until the age of 65 when it increased again.

Young Drivers
Drivers aged 17-24 account for only 11% of the total population in SA but 18% of deaths and 28% of serious injuries.

This is mainly due to:

• inexperience
• lack of skill during the initial period of unsupervised driving
• a tendency to take risks, particularly with other young people.

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People who are older
People aged 70 and over make up 11% of the total population but are involved in 15% of all road deaths.

With increasing age, older drivers and pedestrians are at greater risk of death or serious injury if they are involved in crashes due to:

• increasing frailty
• reduced capacity to recover from injury.

As the proportion of older people in the State rises, the number of older people involved in crashes is expected to increase.

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Aboriginal people
Aboriginal people make up 1.5% of the State’s population but account for 4.5% of deaths — three times the rate of non-Aboriginal people.

Many of those killed are young men aged 15 to 35 years. Nearly two-thirds of the casualties among Aboriginal people occur on rural or remote roads.

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Other road users not in vehicles
Pedestrians and cyclists are at greater risk of injury, especially where there are groups of them eg near schools and shopping centres.

Pedestrians – Deaths/Injuries
Cycling – Deaths/Injuries

Young children do not have the range of emotional, thinking and physical skills to safely interact with traffic without adult supervision

Motorcyclists and their passengers are also over-represented in crash statistics.

Men
Nearly 75% of the people killed in crashes and 62% of those seriously injured are males.

South Australian research into road deaths found that male drivers, passengers, motorcyclists, cyclists, pedestrians were more likely to die or be seriously injured than females.