In addition to celebrating the end of each year and the start of a new one, we also at this time of year sadly reflect on the number of lives lost on our roads. The road toll climbs higher almost every year. Are we getting worse as drivers? Are we speeding more, or are we more distracted? Authorities have used these as reason to impose increasingly heavy fines for even minor transgressions.
There’s another side to the statistics that’s worth thinking
about. Now, before anyone channels their inner Greta Thunberg with a “how dare
you!” for raising this, I’ve lost two good friends due to road fatalities – one
of whom was my best mate. I was first to find him, and with another mate we did
our best with CPR and mouth to mouth. Unsuccessfully as it turned out, to my
eternal regret. I hope others never have to experience that. So by looking at
the data I am acutely aware that the numbers represent the lives of people and the hurt of those left behind.
But the facts matter and so does context.
One reason the road toll is increasing is simply that there
are so many more of us on the roads. We added another million people to the
national population in just 2.5 years. The only way for the road toll to fall
in those circumstances would be to envisage that not one single additional
person will fall victim to a road fatality. Mathematically hugely improbable.
For context, a look at road fatalities per hundred thousand
people tells a different story. Here, our rate of road fatalities has been
falling consistently since 1970. Those fondly recalled family photos of kids
piled into the family wagon with no seatbelts were also a deadly time on our
roads. Drink driving in particular, but other aspects of road safety –
including road design – were not conducive to surviving the drive.
Our current rate of road fatalities is around 4.8 per
hundred thousand – a rate which has more or less not changed in a decade.
Source: The Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities
How does this compare internationally? We are less than half
the rate of road deaths in the USA, we are lower than New Zealand, roughly the
same as Canada but higher than countries like Germany or Japan. Interestingly,
Germany offers very high-speed road travel on much of its federal motorway network
the autobahn. Parts of it have no speed limit at all. Clearly the
quality of their highways is a major factor – speed alone is not.
Source: Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional
Development, Communication and the Arts. (2025, October 30). International
comparisons. National Road Safety Data Hub.
How do we compare across Australia? The Northern Territory is statistically the worst of the states or territories, while the ACT is the best. Is the quality of roads in the ACT a factor? Queensland is higher than both NSW and Victoria but is also a more decentralised state.
Remoteness is a factor, with remote areas recording many more more fatalities per hundred thousand than major cities. In major cities, the fatality rate is half the national average.
None of this is any consolation for people who have lost loved ones in avoidable road accidents. But it helps shed some light on how we might further mitigate accidents and fatalities.
Arguably, Australia as a whole compares favourably on an international basis. It’s also true that major cities – where the road network is more evolved and where traffic is more congested – is a very different proposition to regional and remote areas where road quality is nothing like the big cities, and where distances travelled are much greater.
If we were serious about reducing the road toll further, we
are entitled to suggest that a focus on better road quality - and driver
behaviour - in regional and remote areas will yield more results than a pernicious
focus on minor transgressions in the big cities.
We are not getting worse as drivers nor are we taking more risks on the roads, which the simplistic focus on overall fatality numbers (rather than the rate per hundred thousand) tries to suggest.
The head of Mercedes development made a comment in Aus years ago that the car industry has done it bit to minimise road trauma but Governments have done little except police the easy and profitable piece. Let's face it, there is always a group of government bureaucrats whose definition of a good day is power over the people. Their managers get off on revenue collection. Even friends who are police find micro-management of speed frustrating and belittling. Unfortunately, the trend of an overbearing State is increasing. We don’t want a bigger State or an intrusive state.Frustration is building when people see the State which demands more and more from people as it fails to deliver on core purpose.
ReplyDeleteFatality rate per 100,000 people is not as relevant a measure between countries as rate per billion vehicle-miles. Countries with low rates of driving may have low rates per 100,000 people but also have much lower mobility than countries with high rates of driving. People use fatalities per 100,000 people not because it is a good comparison but because it is convenient: getting vehicle-miles traveled by country is difficult for many countries. But just because a number is convenient doesn't mean it is useful.
ReplyDelete