Category: Road Safety

• Report reveals scale of national road safety challenge

  January 30, 2023 9:00 am Leave a Comment

  Reissued Friday, 3 February 2023 

  Analysis undertaken by Australia’s peak motoring body shows national road deaths heading in the wrong direction and dramatic change is required if recently agreed targets are to be met, or even measured.

  The AAA’s first report tracking the performance of the National Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030 shows that while road deaths decreased by 0.7 per cent from the September 2022 to the December 2022 quarter, road deaths increased by 5.1 per cent throughout the whole of 2022: a year in which 1,187 people died on Australian roads.

  These significant increases are occurring within the context of a National Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030, which was agreed by all Australian governments in December 2021, and which targets a 50 per cent national road death reduction by 2030.

  The report shows that among the states and territories, Tasmania (42.9 per cent), the NT (34.3 per cent), the ACT (63.6 per cent) and Queensland (7.9 per cent) saw the largest increases in road death numbers. It also shows three of the Strategy’s five 2030 targets are either undefined or unable to be measured. These are: “serious injuries reduced by 30 per cent”; “zero deaths in city CBD areas”; and “zero deaths on all national highways and on high-speed roads covering 80 per cent of travel across the network”.

  AAA Managing Director Michael Bradley said: “This is yet another report that shows our national approach to road trauma management continues to lack clarity and coordination.

  “The strong targets agreed by government are welcome, but strong targets do not by themselves deliver better results. If we want different outcomes, we need to change the way road trauma is being managed and the first step must be appropriate reporting and sharing of road crash information.

  “It is unacceptable that governments continue to commit to reducing trauma metrics that they do not measure or report.

  “Until road trauma data is openly reported and used by governments, the most significant causes of Australian road trauma; the most appropriate interventions; and the effectiveness of the plans currently in place, will remain unknown.”

• Road death numbers still heading in wrong direction

  December 15, 2022 12:33 am Leave a Comment

  Australia’s peak motoring body is again calling for urgent improvements to Australia’s road safety management and coordination, as new data shows national road deaths increased 6.2% in the 12 months to 30 November.

  The AAA said the deaths of 1,191 Australian road users – an increase of 70 on the preceding 12-month period – should be of great concern to governments that last December announced a National Road Safety Strategy (NRSS) aiming to halve road deaths through the decade to 2030.

  The latest Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics data shows deaths increasing in most states and territories, with the ACT (100%), Tasmania (60.6%), the NT (45.7%), Victoria (13.5%) and NSW (12.1%) seeing the largest increases. The following table reports progress being made against five of the National Road Safety Strategy’s agreed targets:

  NRSS Target Measure	12 months to November 2022	Increase	% increase	Status
  National deaths	1,191	70	6.2%	RED
  National serious injuries	NOT MEASURED	NOT MEASURED	NOT MEASURED	BLACK
  Deaths of children aged 7 years and under	17	-4	-19.0%	RED
  City CBD area deaths	NOT MEASURED	NOT MEASURED	NOT MEASURED	BLACK
  High-speed network deaths	NOT MEASURED	NOT MEASURED	NOT MEASURED	BLACK

    Status Key

  🟩 Meeting notional target and projected to meet target by 2030

  🟨 Meeting notional target but not projected to meet target by 2030

  🟥 Not meeting notional target

  ⬛ Data not measured

  AAA Managing Director, Michael Bradley, said: It is of great concern that three of the Strategy’s five key targets are still unable to be tracked, and Australia’s worsening road toll reflects poorly on our national approach to road safety, which lacks clarity and coordination.

  “Australia’s poor measurement, analysis, and reporting of road safety performance continues to be the major impediment to evidence-based solutions and well-targeted funding”.

  The AAA is again calling for the Commonwealth to leverage the significant land transport infrastructure funding it provides states to facilitate the timely, consistent, and open reporting of national road safety data, which will allow Australia to quantify its road safety problem, develop evidence-based responses, and evaluate their effectiveness.

  AAA Media contact: media@aaa.asn.au

  The Australian Automobile Association is the nation’s peak motoring body, representing Australia’s state-based motoring clubs and their 8.7 million members. The AAA is an apolitical and technology-neutral advocate for federal transport policy that improves safety, affordability, and mobility.

• COVID restrictions fail to halt climb in road deaths

  December 19, 2021 11:31 am Leave a Comment

  Australia’s peak motoring body is calling on transport ministers to urgently improve national road safety management, after new data confirmed COVID’s travel restrictions, lockdowns, and reduced traffic volumes did not stop Australia’s road toll rising 1.4 per cent (to 1,126 deaths) in the 12 months to November 30.

  Queensland was the state with the largest annual rise in fatalities (10.2 per cent), while motorcyclists were the road user group to suffer the largest annual increase in deaths (up 15.9 per cent).

  AAA Managing Director, Michael Bradley, said: “Australia’s worsening road toll reflects poorly on our chaotic national approach to road safety, which has been shown by recent inquiries and reviews to still lack clarity and coordination.

  “National road trauma data collection and reporting remains shambolic, and Ministers considering Australia’s overdue National Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030, need to prioritise this issue”, he said. “At a time when Australians have daily reporting of COVID infections, hospitalisations, deaths, and vaccinations split by age, gender, and jurisdiction, nobody knows how many Australians were seriously injured on our roads last year, let alone the interventions likely to deliver improvements in the future.

  “Road trauma has killed more than 1,000 Australians every year since 1935, however national data coordination problems continue to thwart evidence-based policy and well-targeted funding.”

  The AAA is concerned the draft National Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030 repeats past mistakes and will again fail to generate the comprehensive data needed to either monitor or manage Australia’s road trauma crisis. The AAA continues to call for federal and state ministers to agree measurable actions; deadlines; responsibilities between layers of government; and how they are going to measure success.

  Mr Bradley said: “Australia’s data-driven response to COVID shows what’s possible within our federation and what governments should aspire to in road safety.”

  Australia’s latest road safety data shows regional areas to be particularly affected. Despite only accounting for 28 per cent of the national population, regional Australia now records 62 per cent of Australian road deaths, and regional Australians are five-times more likely to die from road trauma than those in metropolitan areas.

  Media contact:  Shaun Rigby
  shaun.rigby@aaa.asn.au
  0438 021 936

  The Australian Automobile Association is the nation’s peak motoring body, representing Australia’s state-based motoring clubs and their 8.5 million members. The AAA is an apolitical and technology-neutral advocate for federal transport policy that improves safety, affordability, and mobility.