Statistics show Australia’s regional road deaths are too big of a problem

news7g03/24/2023

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Statistics show Australia's regional road deaths are too big of a problem

According to the highest body of Australian-based driving clubs, Australians in sparsely populated areas are five times more likely to die from a traffic accident than people in urban areas. .

The Australian Automobile Association (AAA), which represents bodies such as the NRMA, RACV and RACQ, has noted this alarming discrepancy by citing current data from the Bureau of Infrastructure Research Economics. and transportation.

It shows the per capita road death rate for rural Australians in 2022 to be 10.6 deaths per 100,000 people, while the corresponding rate for urban Australians is 2, 24 deaths per 100,000 people.

The mortality rate is particularly heartbreaking in large swaths of the Western Australia and Northern Territory regions, at 18.7 people per 100,000 people.

All told, 1193 people have died on the nation’s roads in 2022, up more than 5% from the previous year despite the increasingly safer fleet. This equates to a nationwide per capita death rate of 4.59 deaths per 100,000 people.

AAA chief executive Michael Bradley said the numbers “show a picture of concern for people and families living across parts of Australia”.

“We need to understand the drivers of urban disparities, and greater Federal road safety leadership through improved data collection is key to transforming it,” he added. this comes true.

“We know the number of deaths is continuing to rise, but we have no national data on serious injuries, road quality, causes of collisions or details of people and vehicles involved. .

“Knowing how many people are killed in traffic accidents is not enough – we also need to know how they were killed and how to prevent these deaths in the future.”

As reported ThisAAA’s 2023-24 federal budget submission calls for Commonwealth road funding to the states and territories linked to their provision of this road collision data, “so that people Australia can be satisfied that spending on roads is going where it is needed.”

Mr Bradley added: “There is a lot we don’t know about traffic injuries in Australia, but one thing we do know is that if we continue to make the same mistakes we will continue to create similarly tragic consequences.”

THAN: Australian car clubs want clearer crash data amid road toll increases

Ministry of Infrastructure figures taken between February 2022 and 2023 show that of all road deaths, 47% of those killed were drivers, 15% were passengers, 13% are pedestrians, nearly 20% are motorcyclists and 3.4% are cyclists.

The most affected demographic group is the 40-64 year old group, with 376 deaths during this period, accounting for about 32% of the total number of traffic accidents. An additional 492 (41%) came from the 17 to 25 and 26 to 39 year old age groups.

The gender divide is stark, with 870 of the 1186 deaths being men, and while most Australians reside in cities, road tolls in the region are much higher (776 deaths). death to 417 for the calendar year 2022).