Australia has seen the worst six-month death toll on the country’s roads in more than a decade, prompting calls for answers.
Australia records worst road tolls in more than five years
The Australian Automobile Association’s latest National Road Safety Strategy Benchmarks report shows the number of deaths on Australian roads will increase by 7.3 per cent from 2022 to 2023, with 1,266 people losing their lives on roads last year. It became clear.
The second half of 2023 saw 677 road fatalities recorded, making it the deadliest consecutive quarter on Australian roads since the first half of 2010.
The large increase in national highway tolls in 2023 was driven by the number of climbing deaths in three Australian states.
New South Wales recorded a nearly 30 per cent increase from 2022, with 351 people losing their lives last year. Victoria’s road toll increased by 22.5 per cent, resulting in 294 deaths in 2023. Road tolls in South Australia hit 117, an increase of nearly 65 per cent from 2022. .
However, five states and territories recorded a reduction in road deaths, with the ACT seeing 14 fewer deaths, Tasmania 16, Western Australia 17 and Queensland. A decrease of 20 people was recorded.
The AAA states that the data needed to understand the deterioration in national road tolls related to “the quality of Australia’s roads, the causes of accidents and the effectiveness of various measures to prevent accidents” is being collected by state governments. However, it has not been made public yet. .
AAA Managing Director Michael Bradley said: “Without the right data, Australia will have no reliable plan to understand our current road trauma problem and prevent its continuation.”
“Despite much data on road quality and accident causes remains secret, Australia is unable to identify the causes of road toll increases or develop the most effective measures to reduce tolls.” I can’t do that either.
“AAA research shows that Australians believe that politicians prioritize funding for road projects and that increasing data transparency is a common-sense approach that has overwhelming support from local communities. Very sarcastic.”
AAA called on the Australian Government to force states and territories to disclose existing road safety data as a condition of receiving future federal road grants.
AAA’s request comes as the administration is negotiating a national partnership agreement for surface transportation infrastructure projects that will oversee how $5 billion in federal highway funding will be distributed over the next five years.
AAA said “voluntary data sharing agreements are failing” and the only way to increase needed transparency is to “use agreements to link data sharing to the receipt of road funding.” .