Reducing lives lost on our roads
Since records began in 1925, more than 190,000 people have lost their lives due to road crashes in Australia.
That’s more than three and a half times the capacity of Adelaide Oval.
The annual fatality rate reached its peak in 1970, when 3798 people died on the nation’s roads.
Since then, there’s been a steady decline in the number of road deaths, with 1258 people killed in 2023. Sadly, this was up from 1180 in 2022.
This is far too many tragedies to accept, but given Australia’s population in 1970 was about 12 million compared to the current 27 million, it’s a significant improvement.
So, what main factors helped save so many lives?
Seatbelts
From 1 January 1969, it became mandatory for all new passenger cars in Australia to be fitted with front seatbelts, with rear seatbelts becoming compulsory in January 1971.
In 1970, Victoria became the first state to legislate that fitted seatbelts must be used, and by 1972 the rest of the country had followed.
The annual number of lives lost on Australian roads never again reached the 1970 figure.
Unfortunately, not everyone’s wearing this lifesaving device, with figures revealing at least 24 per cent of vehicle occupants who lost their lives on SA roads from 2019-2023 weren’t wearing a seatbelt.
This figure may be higher because in 12 per cent of vehicle-occupant lives lost it’s not known if seatbelts were worn.
Random Breath Testing (RBT)
In 1976, Victoria became the first state to introduce RBT, though static checkpoints (booze buses) didn’t appear on the state’s roads until 1989. South Australia began a three-year trial of RBT in 1981, and then adopted it permanently as a road safety measure.
Prior to the introduction of RBT, police could only test drivers who showed signs of being under the influence of alcohol.
Victoria began the random testing of drivers for drugs in December 2004, followed by the rest of the country. The tests can detect THC (cannabis), methylamphetamine (speed, ice and crystal meth) and MDMA (ecstasy).
Random testing has reduced the number of alcohol and drug-affected road users. However, 33 per cent of fatal crashes in SA from 2019–2023 involved at least one person having an illegal BAC (blood alcohol concentration) or illicit drugs – or both – in their system.
Speed cameras
First once again, Victoria introduced mobile speed cameras in 1985, followed by the rest of the country.
Fixed speed and red-light cameras appeared on SA streets in 1988.
A 2018 University of Adelaide study showed a reduction of up to 21 per cent of crashes causing injuries at SA intersections where a fixed camera was installed.
The state’s first average speed (point-to-point) safety camera was installed on Port Wakefield Highway in 2014, and several major SA roads are now equipped with this technology.
Improvement in vehicle safety, and ANCAP
In the 1970s, cars on Australian roads were extremely low-tech compared to today’s standards.
- Anti-lock brakes (ABS) were only available on higher-end vehicles
- Many vehicle models still had drum brakes rather than disc brakes
- Fewer cars had effective crumple zones
- Vehicles didn’t have air bags to protect vehicle occupants.
In 2003, ABS became compulsory on all passenger cars sold in Australia.
Australian Design Rule (ADR) 69, which took effect on 1 July 1995, relates to full-frontal crash protection for passenger car occupants.
Compliance with the rule is determined by injury criteria, using crash test dummies wearing seatbelts to gauge the extent of injuries on impact.
Although the rule doesn’t specifically require airbags to be fitted to vehicles, ADR 69 saw driver airbags appear in most passenger cars, followed by the slew of airbags that now cocoon the occupants of modern vehicles.
Arriving on the scene in 1992, the independent Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) team rigorously test vehicle safety in their Crashlab.
Based on these tests, ANCAP awards safety ratings of up to five stars. Although vehicle manufacturers aren’t bound by these ratings (as long as they comply with ADRs), ANCAP’s work has greatly contributed to vehicle safety in Australia.
Uniform speed limits
All Australian states and territories, apart from Northern Territory, have reduced their default urban speed limits, with South Australia adopting a 50km/h limit in 2003.
In the first three years there was a 23 per cent reduction in casualty crashes on streets where the speed limit had changed to 50km/h, a University of Adelaide study revealed.
In addition to these factors, ongoing education programs, government campaigns and a significant improvement in roads and infrastructure have all contributed to an overall reduction in lives lost on Australian roads since the 1970s.
Unfortunately, in the last decade the steady decline in fatalities has plateaued, with 2023 recording the highest number of lives lost on Australian roads since 2016.
Since 2020, there have been three year-on-year increases in road deaths, which hasn’t happened since the 1970s.
National Road Safety Strategy
In 2021, all Australian state and territory governments agreed on a 10-year National Road Safety Strategy (NRSS), with five main goals in mind.
- Halving national road deaths
- Reducing serious injuries from road crashes by 30 per cent
- Achieving zero road deaths of children seven-years-old and under
- Zero road deaths in city CBD areas
- Zero deaths on all national highways and on high-speed roads covering 80 per cent of travel across the network.
A September 2024 quarterly report compiled by the Australian Automobile Association (AAA) on the progress of the NRSS, shows these goals aren’t on track to being achieved.
AAA Managing Director Michael Bradley says there’s been a 5.6 per cent increase in road deaths nationally in the 12 months to 30 September this year, compared with the previous 12 months.
“As of the end of September 2024, the country’s 12-month road toll is 17.4 per cent higher than when the strategy commenced,” Michael says.
“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.”