National Road Safety Strategy failing
The latest edition of the Australian Automobile Association’s Benchmarking the Performance of the National Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030 shows 1,288 people died on Australian roads in the 12 months to 30 September – up 5.6% from 1,220 in the previous corresponding period.
Signed by all Australian governments, the Strategy aims to halve road deaths through the decade to 2030, but this latest data shows road deaths have instead increased by 17.4 per cent since the Strategy commenced.
AAA analysis of the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics’ monthly road death statistics shows 40 of the past 41 monthly updates describing an annual increase relative to the preceding 12-month period.
Australia’s worsening road safety problem is also demonstrated by no state or territory being on track to meet its National Road Safety Strategy targets.
The figures reveal 12-monthly increases in road deaths in NSW (up 6.5%), Victoria (8.5%), Western Australia (7.1%) and Tasmania (5.9%). The Northern Territory saw a 130.8% surge in crash fatalities over the period.
Road deaths declined in South Australia (-9.8%), Queensland (-4.2%) and the ACT (-22.2%). But even these jurisdictions are still significantly off track because of previous increases.
The latest Benchmarking report also shows three of the Strategy’s five headline targets remain either unmeasured or unreported.
A change of direction is needed.
Governments must closely examine data about crash causes, road conditions and trends in police traffic enforcement to determine what is going wrong on our roads. They must then collaborate to use this data to identify policy shortcomings as well as best-practice approaches that can be shared between jurisdictions.