2008 Road toll figures lowest in 59 years

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By Alborz Fallah | February 01st, 2009

The final road toll figures for 2008 have been released, setting last year’s record at 1463 road casualties.

This is a reduction of 153 deaths over 2007 and 135 over 2006. The good news is this is the best year on record since 1949, it sounds even better when you take into consideration that there are 11 times more vehicles on the road today than back then.

The bad news? The federal and state transport ministers are using the new figure as proof that speed cameras and speed-limit enforcement measures are working.

“It’s clear that many measures are working, such as actions in terms of penalties for speeding and other offences, such as strong action such as drink driving, we need to make sure that we continue to be vigilant.” Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said in Sydney.

Unfortunately it seems as though the federal transport minister has forgotten some rather interesting facts.

Cars made six decades ago lacked a great deal of safety features available today. Airbags, traction control, ESP, crumple zones, seatbelts, the list is enormous.

Secondly, the condition of Australian roads have improved considerably, lane-change bumps, better signage, wider lanes, better traffic management and so on.

It’s unjustified to use increase speed-limit enforcement as a reason behind the improved figures.

The Northern Territory, which not so long ago had no speed limits on major highways, introduced speed limits from mid-2007. In 2008 the Northern Territory’s road toll increased by 29.3 percent!

How speed-limit enforcement can be used as a reason behind the “improved” road toll figures while the introduction of speed limits in the NT has clearly had a negative effect is beyond me.

There are also 12 very-serious injuries for every one fatality on Australia roads. This is an interesting figure as those serious injuries would very likely have led to death in cars from six decades ago.

It’s worth noting that the (12 serious injuries + 1 death) 13:1 figure is nearly proportionate to the 11:1 ratio of cars in 2008:1949.

The current figures show there is still four deaths (plus 48 serious injuries) a day on Australia roads. Mr Albanese says the figure remains too high.

Perhaps the only other good news from the statistics is the drop in P-plater fatalities, down 16 per cent over 2007.

2007 and 2008 were the best two years on record for new car sales in Australia. Since getting a driver’s licence still remains an easy task and requires no real driver training, it’s plausible to suggest the increased likelihood of P-platers driving more modern cars is a contributing factor.

On the whole, 2008 figures show that all states recorded major falls in their road tolls. Victoria came in at 8.4 per cent, Queensland and New South Wales both managed 9.2 percent while South Australia had the best success with a 20.2 per cent reduction (no exact figures available for West Australia and Tasmania at time of publication).

The Australian Capital Territory’s yearly road toll remained unchanged, while, as previously mentioned, the Northern Territory recorded a 29.3 per cent increase with 75 fatalities.

The news isn’t so great for our friends on two wheels, with 2008 recording a 4.2 per cent increase in the number of motorcyclists killed on the road.

“But we need to particularly get the message across to infrequent motorcycle users, perhaps those who just take the bike out on the weekend, that they have to be cautious and careful about the way that they drive.” Mr Albanese said

We think he means the way “they ride“.

The current national road toll target is set at 5.6 deaths per 100,000 by 2010, if the same reduction (2007 to 2008) can be repeated in 2009, and 2010, Australia will hit target.

The drop in the 2008 road toll figures are not a direct result of stronger speed-limit enforcement. The nation cannot simply neglect the thousands that are seriously injured by car accidents.

If we are to only focus on deaths, it’s very likely that by 2020 the road toll figure will be well below 1000 as cars with significantly advanced safety systems will further prevent death. This is not an indication that speed-limit enforcement is the cause.

If the transport authorities were serious about reducing the road toll and were considering a long term plan over a short term one, they would introduce a number of new policies.

Mandatory advanced and defensive driver training before acquiring a licence. A methodology which has proved successful in many European countries.
All drivers/riders to be retested and reissued with a new licence every five years.
More specific licences issued for different types of vehicles (size, power, purpose).

I will, however, commend the transport minister for setting in motion a $70 million outlay on rest stops for truck drivers as well as plans to provide 200,000 free driving lessons to learner drivers and their parents.

Do you believe the reduction in the 2008 road toll is a direct result of more speed cameras and improved speed-limit enforcement?

What other ideas can you think of to reduce the number of people seriously injured or killed on Australian roads?

RoFlmaTiC

Some valid points regarding cause and effect.

However, I think if you are to compare the safety of cars 40 years ago to those today, it would only be fair to compare the power and speeds of the cars too. Sure there might be far better roads today, but how fast could cars even go in the 50′s ?
Joe

There’s not much to say really that you didn’t say in the article. The governments (state and federal) completely ignore the statistics when they’re bad, but as soon as there’s even a hint of good it’s all ‘OMG look at how good our speed cameras are doing!’ (well maybe not EXACTLY like that, but near enough).

Until public pressure increases nothing will change. Unfortunately the longer this goes on the more the general public are convinced by the ‘speed kills’ ads.

Perhaps someone should organise an interview with Today Tonight or A Current Affair. They seem to love to bash the government (someone should probably talk to them about objective journalism) but no matter how bad they are they certainly know how to rally the ignorant masses. Get them to publish the facts on how many lives speed cameras save vs well built, divided roads with guardrails between the cars and the trees. Not to mention straight highways where possible.
http://www.caradvice.com.au George

Improved passenger vehicle safety would have to be the number one contributing factor to the decrease in the road toll, but naturally the Government likes to dress its cash cow in a pretty frock when these kind of statistics are released.

Personally – and this will no doubt cause a stir – older vehicles should be banned from our roads. Inexperienced drivers in $500 cars are the main reason why P-platers are so overly represented in the road toll.

When five-star safety is available from sub-$20,000 there really is no reason to keep these death traps on the road.
Captain Mainwaring

This result almost mirrors what has happened in NZ. Funny how less people get killed on the road when there’s a recession on, fuel prices spike and people do less driving.
Also, the motorbike stats are a mirror image as well. Here, the death rate for younger bikers continues to decline, but this has been more than offset by an increase in deaths of over-30 motorcyclists. The old boys returning to two wheels hasn’t been a happy experience.
Chucky

George Says:
February 1st, 2009 at 6:56 pm

Personally – and this will no doubt cause a stir – older vehicles should be banned from our roads. Inexperienced drivers in $500 cars are the main reason why P-platers are so overly represented in the road toll.

When five-star safety is available from sub-$20,000 there really is no reason to keep these death traps on the road.
———————————————————————————————————————-

While I agree in theory with you, this won’t work in practice in a country like Australia. We have a poor excuse for public transport, and a Government that is more interested in revenue raising than improving driver skills. Then of course Kevin 07 increased taxes on $57,000+ cars to ensure that these models with better safety features take even longer to eventually filter down to P-platers (some of which they aren’t even allowed to drive because they have a low power supercharger or turbocharger).
Devil666

I’m with Chucky.

On a side note, RoFlmaTiC makes a valid point about 40 year old cars and their power/speed statistics, what were the speed limits back in those days?
topdog

Yeh there going to say anything to defend there camers.Anyone with half a brain knows thats its a hole heap of things together that has help with the figures.And yes newer cars are the biggest help.I remenber when i was a lot younger seeing some crashs at very low speeds in town and the injuries were horrific at like only 30 mph and those people had there faces smashed up so bad.Same crash in todays cars you would step out of car and start saying shit man look what your done to my car with out hardy a scatch on you
Chun

It is great to see the road toll is down- bleh as if…
Yes, it could be because of newer cars with all these newer tech stuff like “ESP” , “BA” etc which contribute to a safer vehicle. In the end, even if the car is equipped with these items: it is still down to the person behind the wheel… so I reckon drivers education and training – and raise awareness to issue factors like “stress” “mindsets” etc… might be worth mentioning.

I don’t think speed cameras and set speed limits help either, because from what I have seen on the road – some drivers just tend to ignore them.

Sadly, the government won’t do jack about it… Don’t even try to mention it to those current affair shows either(about improving driver’s training etc).
Jerome

Ow no. Now the government are going to use these stats to increase speed camers, harsher penalties ect saying its working.
When really its probably all due to car safety increasing dramatically each year.
http://honda carsgetreal

In south australia in the late 60s ,nearly 400 died in one year , adjust for population increases and numbers of vehicles and this would be over 2500 in todays terms .

That would be totally unacceptable ,almost in the league of war deaths , so we really are bringing it down dramatically.

Vehicle safety and enhanced policing has achieved this reduction , but to reduce it further is difficult with the hard core minority of drink drivers .

This is where the policing must be the strongest , go after the drink driver , not the 5km over limit commuter .

The revenue/taxing regime or speed cameras is a smoke screen , the real issue is drink drivers .
Alex

Unfortunately, the good numbers are cancelled out by the deaths in the heat wave.
Minnow

Could the reduction in P-Plater deaths be related to the increase in the AlcoPop tax? Instead of now getting just drunk enough on PMD’s the teeny boppers are now passing out on full strength spirits and not getting to the car….
Joober

“The revenue/taxing regime or speed cameras is a smoke screen , the real issue is drink drivers . ”

- That and hoons (drag racing), fatigue and distractions…
Deano

George:

Great idea there mate, are you writing me the cheque needed for a new car when they take my 30 year old daily off the road? There’s many, many more than just P-Platers who aren’t in a position to shell out 15-20K for a new vehicle.

*Inexperienced* drivers can do a lot of damage with *any* car, old or new, safety features and age of the car are only one factor.
http://www.caradvice.com.au George

Deano:

Countries like Japan have been using this principle for years, employing strict vehicle inspections and environmental laws to make keeping an old car very expensive.

The result isn’t that those with tight budgets have had to resort to the (admittedly highly efficient) public transport system, but rather car makers have responded by introducing very affordable and surprisingly safe ultra-light vehicles to their line-up.

So the result would be a new range of safe, fuel efficient, brand new cars like the Hyundai i10 (four-star EuroNCAP) for potentially sub-$10,000.
ayenonemus

By the time 2020 comes the figures will be null and void cause either:

1) We’ll all be driving stupid slow zombie electric cars that aren’t capable of infliciting harm to a butterfly.. or..
2) Petrol will be $85 a litre and no one will be on the road

When you do something repetitively day in day out, you get lazy to the point where you don’t take notice of what’s happening around you and THAT is where you make mistakes. Constantly driving at these slow set speeds is making people stupid/bored/switching off on the roads and causing them to lapse in judgement which in turns causes accidents. People break the set speed rules right now because:

1) They are too slow
2) If you tell someone to do 60 they will always in most cases try and do 70 to get away with it. Unfortunately there are always going to be road deaths, no one/situation is perfect. For eg; If you had a no speed limit rule on the highway, people would get BORED of “speeding” and would eventually sit at their own limit where they didn’t have to watch out for their speed and cameras every 2 mins and THAT is what is distracting to a driver.

Yes there will be those people that will continue to be crazy drivers but I bet even those, one day will get bored of it and because there is no longer a rush to “speed” will get over it and drive sensibly. Of course this will sound insane to the dumbasses that set our speed rules but speed doesn’t kill, it’s the mentallity of the driver behind the wheel that kills. Australia needs to stop babying it’s motorists in regards to speeding. Drink drivers are the worst problem on our roads yet they get a slap on the wrist yet someone doing 40 over the “limit” on a straight piece of unattended road can potentially go to jail. Hardly sensible lol.
Horse

Personally – and this will no doubt cause a stir – older vehicles should be banned from our roads. Inexperienced drivers in $500 cars are the main reason why P-platers are so overly represented in the road toll.

When five-star safety is available from sub-$20,000 there really is no reason to keep these death traps on the road.
————————————————————————————

I have a great reason to keep my 30yo HZ GTS ‘Death Trap’ on the road, Its my pride and joy and a bit of aussie history. You can keep your ‘safe’ euro plastic shitbox and let let real aussie drivers enjoy there cars.
PS what happens when all learners have only ever driven modern cars with all the safety gear, It means they will never really learn to drive.
bruster

im sorry but they are quick to suggest the methods are working but very slow to act to fix our roads and transport.

here are few facts the may have contributed to the lower road toll:
1) petrol hits its highest levels ever therefore fewer people driving..i know i avoided trips interstate when i normally would
2)cars are much safer these days, i wont go into details one life saver is DSC.
3)traffic is so bad sometimes that you would be lucky to go over 60km/h

please pass this is on to our lovely government and RTA…
http://porsche Millatime

Superb article Alborz, after expressing those views you you will now be extremely likely to find the Police sitting out the front of your home with radar and revenue cameras out to get you. Sad but true.

Driver training is appalling in this country, it really is abysmal, in fact criminal would be accurate. Governments recognise that young males are a higher risk, their response is rather than train them, simply to limit the number of passengers so when they inevitably crash, with less people in the car means less fatalities. For God’s sake follow the European example of comprehensive training, teach them the dangers and risks involved, demonstrate the enormous energy a moving car has at different speeds and how this is transferred to the human body at impact, show them what twisted and torn metal does to human flesh, teach defensive driving and car control.

As long as the various ministers continue to focus on raising revenue and not implementing adequate driver training, the tragic reality is that through this inaction these ministers, with pockets bulging stuffed full of our cash, smile at the cameras saying their policy is working, whilst out of camera view under the table their hands are dripping with our blood.
http://caradvice.com.au OSU811

I think you just have to look at the new car sales figures in the last decade. To understand why the road toll is down. With more and more newer, safer cars on the road the toll is always going to come down as more people are better protected!!!
http://www.caradvice.com.au Karl Peskett

“For God’s sake follow the European example of comprehensive training, teach them the dangers and risks involved, demonstrate the enormous energy a moving car has at different speeds and how this is transferred to the human body at impact, show them what twisted and torn metal does to human flesh, teach defensive driving and car control.”

Millatime, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Showing what the forces of inertia will do is something that is completely lacking.

Once someone understands the damage that can be done by a tonne-and-a-half of metal and plastic at speed, they think twice.
KC

I can tell you right now if I had been on a driving course and another 50 hours of L’s time when I moved onto my p’s I think I would have been a much, much safer and better driver because of it. Luckily I lived on a farm and so could mess around in the paddocks with cars before traking one on the road. I simply don’t understand how city-born and raised kids learn to drive on only 50 hours. I probably watch that much TV a fortnight.
crouchy

Could the increase in motorcycle incidents be attrubuted to the growing number of scooter riders who dont even require a bike license, let alone the skill required to ride safely….
Jimbo

crouchy, I don’t know about other states, but in Victoria you need a Motorcycle licence to ride any scooter.

I have only just got my Motorcycle Learners permit and I have only been learning to ride now for 5 weeks. Now its my job to ride safely and to look out for myself. However I have noticed just how many driver don’t look and or look but don’t see, particularly at intersections.
I know when I was a just a driver of a car I hardly noticed Motorcyclist, but now that I am one I see them everywhere!

So If you could do me and my mates a favour and keep your eyes extra peeled for Motorcyclists when you out there on the roads it would be much appreciated.
http://www.caradvice.com.au George

Horse:

You have completely missed the point. The idea is to ban cars which have completely lost their worth which allows younger drivers to pick them up for a few hundred dollars as their first car, as I originally mentioned – not to blanket ban all older cars.

Obviously if your older car is worth more than a few hundred dollars it wouldn’t end up in the hands of a new driver. Please read the entire comment before replying rather than taking a single sentence out of context.

As for your ‘PS’, you are joking right? That’s like saying if I’ve used a computer all my life, how will I ever learn to use a typewriter. New technology has made old driving practices redundant. You wouldn’t teach your kid to pump the brakes on a car with ABS, or feather the throttle and counter-steer when the rear steps out in a car with ESP.
Adam (aka Mada)

So ones years drop is a clear indication that this trend will continue?

Yeah ok…

Northern territory figures are hard for the pollies to explain.
Frontman

(Alborz) Good comment:

If it was that the speed deterent devices such as Camera’s and such were working, then why is it that the road toll is in decline yet the revenue raised and the number of infringement notices issued have increased????
The other major change over the last five years to help reduce road tolls has been the drop in interstate airfares. The days of it being cheaper to drive from Brissie to Sydney for the weekend are long gone.
Glen

The NSW government says that speed is involved in 40% of fatal crashes. This includes crashes involving alcohol and speed, crashes involving fatigue and speed and crashes where a vehicle is going too fast on a corner but not exceeding the speed limit. How many fatal crashes are caused by a car EXCEEDING the speed limit where the driver is not drunk or tired?
crouchy

Jimbo – I beleive in South Australia (my home) that riders of motorcycles 50cc and under can ride using a drivers license.. Seems ridiculous to me….
Jimbo

Crouchy,

I agree. 100%

All riders should have approved training, a licence and be required to wear the proper safety gear. Anything less is madness!
B-Man

Crouchy
That used to be the case here in Vic as well, until a few years ago when those little pocket bikes were selling like hot cakes on the net. Cops didn’t seem to like a bunch of kids riding their 50cc harley replicas to the shops so they put a stop to that.
Horse

George

“older vehicles should be banned from our roads”
I don’t see how this can be taken any other way, Any way I do see where you are coming from.
In NSW cars have to be inspected every year to pass rego which i understand does not happen in any other state? (I coule be wrong here)
I would feel more confortable that my kids had experience driving in cars with no abs/esp even if they don’t own one.
eh179driver

Alborz, great article with a lot of valid points. The only problem I see is the re-testing of drivers every 5 years. Mate, there is not enough government testing offices in Victoria to handle the load! In the area I live (South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne) you have an office in Dandenong, Clayton and Warragul for the entire area. As it is, you have to book up to 4 months in advance to sit the test. Imagine if we then addded in all currently licensed drivers re-sitting the test. What could be looked at is re-testing people over 70 every 3 to 5 years and also re-testing drivers once they come off their P plates or after 5 years. It seems that those two groups are over represented in accidents/deaths. It would also be good if the law we have in Vic regarding P platers not being able to drive V8′s turbo and supercharged cars actualy being enforced. We have a young P plater in our street driving a turbo’d Skyline. He got his license in November 08 and Mummy bought it for him as a first car!
The comment from George about old cars being forced off the road is just plain stupid. George my son’s HR was worth $500 when he bought it. It now has new brakes, new engine, tyres, rebuilt front end and steering. It probably worth less than $2000. In your scenario, say by by HR! Just because a car is worth a small amount, does not make it dangerous. I can show you some VT to VZ Commodores that are in a lot worse condition than my sons HR but sell for upwards of $10’000. God am I glad your not a politician able to influence decisions like that!!!!!!!!
eh179driver

Alborz, one area that is worth considering with the road toll is the long dry spell we have had, certainly in the southern states. I was talking about this with a Policeman mate over Christmas and he says that it is well recognised here in Victoria that the road toll is lower (in winter) when we have these long periods with much rain. He was saying that the Police (and I guess the government) is worried that when we have “normal” or above normal rainfall again in winter, the road toll will inctease considerably.
Are you able to get some figures on Germany where they have open Autobahn speeds? It would be intersting to look at the death/injury rates per head of poulation or number of registered vehicles and compare it to Australia where we have very low speed limits.
trackdaze

Reduction can be attributed to Stability Control and to a lesser degree safer passenger cells.

Maybe the government should offer reductions in registration fees to 5star cars? it could even be funded by the health budget seeing that they wont need to be treating the thousands saved from significant injury and saving on energy in the morgue too not having to keep 100′s on ice.

I might imagine such a move would make a few manufacturers fit Stability control to the “Rhinestone” utes that are overrepresented in crash statistics. A win for everyone.
Army Driver

Answer to FoFlmaTic, the speed limit in 1950′s was 35 mph in city an suburbs, 60 mph in country- country was designated as no poles with lights,if you saw a white rectangle with a black stripe running diagnal,then it was unrestricted speed, do what you like, some 30 yrs ago, the RTA designated a blanket speed of 100 kph for outside city limits across NSW, but unfortunately,they didn’t take down all the unrestricted signs, so on a legal technicality if you were pulled up for speeding, you just told the copper where the unrestricted sign was, later, that would be removed too.
I believe education and training are key elements in driving. As an army driving instructor, rarely if ever will you hear about army drivers coming to grief, we teach them how to drive in all situations, wet an dry, night an day, our courses run from 2 weeks-6 days aweek( sunday off )12 hour days and nights to 8 weeks intense training, you will learn every aspect of driving,repairs,servicing,winching,tar, gravel,bush roads, no-roads,blow-outs, braking on oil,vision,dimensions,black-out lights driving, 4 WD, 6 WD,night driving.

We weed out the cowboys, every sunday night is elimination night, we train the dumbest to be the best.
Eh179driver is right, when there is a dry spell on roads, oils and grease accumulate, so at the first light shower there are lots of rear-ended crashes and slides, hint, after a dry spell then a light shower, stay off the road for at least 20 minutes, allow for the oils to wash off roads, motor-bike riders-stay out of middle of lane-too much slip, go back after rain as the middle dries quicker than on sides of lane.
The Government should reward those who have not been booked for 20 yrs or 10, a little reward for being careful
and those who are booked should pay more for their privledge,those who kill ppl while drink-driving should never ever be allowed back on roads, they had a chance why give them a second go at murdering some-one else.