Road Toll Figures 2006
January 2, 2007 by Alborz Fallah
So another year has come to an end. Usually this time of the year, most car websites tend to concentrate on sale numbers and increases in manufacturer earnings. However we thought it would be worth looking at some figures that need far more attention than sales figures.
In 2006, 1614 people died on Australian roads, the number includes drivers and passengers of all types of vehicles as well as pedestrians hit by motor vehicles. This figure is 25 below last years road toll of 1589. So the question remains, which states are the winners in reducing the road toll and which states failed to bring the road toll down.
- SA 117 -> -30
- ACT 13 -> -13
- NT 44 -> -11
- VIC 335 -> -11
- NSW 510 -> -6
- TAS 54 -> -3
- QLD 337 -> +7
- WA 204 -> +42
SA managed to cut their road toll by 30 from last year whilst the ACT cut the road toll by 50% bringing it down to 13. Other states also managed to reduce their road toll except for Queensland and Western Australia. Although an increase of 7 deaths is not a significant increase for QLD, an increase of 42 for WA is a shocking result for the state!
QLD police blamed the higher road toll on the rising QLD population as well as new roads. QLD has seen the new enoughisenough campaign for this holiday season urging drivers to take responsibility for their own actions.
All in all the results do not show a significant decrease in the annual road toll as most state governments (albeit perhaps not the NT) continue to use fear as a method to decrease the road toll.
Print it: 
I don’t know about the other states however, it would be good to see the QLD police obey the laws they enforce on other drivers, I rarely see a police car doing less that the posted limit, unless they’re stuck in traffic. The best way to reduce the road toll would be to properly educate drivers before they are let loose on the open road. Secondly to fix bad roads and not compound the problem with ongoing bad road design.
I agree with what Qld police have in there campain and would like to take it further with the driver responcibility and if it is found that an accident was caused due to the ill action of a moterist then it is murder as we all know the risk prior to driving a vehicle. more restrictions on younger drivers and more road funding id the key.
We need to get some common-sense drivng tuition into new drivers starting their driving career,not misleading one liners