Benchmarking the National Road Safety Strategy
The National Road Safety Strategy (NRSS) 2021-30 recognises that road deaths can be significantly reduced.
Federal, state and territory governments have signed up to the NRSS, committing to reaching several key targets over the decade to 2030, including:
- halving national road deaths
- reducing serious injuries from road crashes by 30%
- achieving zero road deaths of children
- zero road deaths in city CBD areas
- zero deaths on all national highways and on high-speed roads covering 80% of travel across the network
The Benchmarking quarterly report aims to inform Australians about the nation’s road safety performance and to make politicians accountable for policies that affect road safety.
In particular, it highlights the need for more transparency and making better use of road safety data to guide policies and investment decisions.
The Benchmarking report quantifies progress towards these targets nationally and in each state and territory. It also tracks road deaths among different groups of road users, including drivers, passengers, cyclists, motorcyclists, and pedestrians.
Unfortunately, poor data availability and a lack of agreed national measurements still make it impossible to track progress on serious injuries, deaths in city CBDs, and deaths on national highways and high-speed roads.
