NATIONAL ROAD SAFETY ACTION PLAN 2007 AND 2008

NATIONAL ROAD SAFETY ACTION PLAN 2007 AND 2008

Introduction Despite impressive improvements in road safety since the early 1970s, road trauma continues to impose a massive burden on the Australian community. The annual economic cost of road crashes in Australia has been conservatively estimated at $18 billion. But even this enormous figure cannot adequately convey the pain, grief and suffering of road crash victims, their families, friends and the wider community. Road crashes disproportionately affect younger members of society and therefore have a relatively large impact on years of productive life lost. For each road death there are about 13 serious injuries – many with long-term impacts involving loss of quality of life and costly rehabilitation. In Australia, annual road deaths have fallen from a peak of 3,798 in 1970 to current levels of approximately 1,600. Over that period, road travel has increased by almost 150 per cent. Our success in reducing road trauma has resulted from concerted action by governments, the community, industry and road safety professionals. The National Road Safety Strategy 2001–2010 aims to reduce the annual number of road deaths per 100,000 population by 40 per cent to no more than 5.6 by December 2010. This target corresponds to at least 560 fewer road deaths per year. Because of data limitations, the Strategy did not adopt a numeric target for injury reductions, but reducing injuries is an important objective, and the actions presented here are expected to reduce injuries as well as deaths. The Strategy is supported by two-yearly action plans of which this is the fourth. As we now assess progress after the mid-point of the 10-year Strategy, we appear to be at risk of failing to achieve the 2010 national target: though road death rates have dropped by more than 20 per cent in some jurisdictions relative to their pre-Strategy rate. Road deaths and injuries are preventable. Research and best practice interventions have given us knowledge about strategies and measures that can signifi cantly improve road safety. It is clear that we now need strong and focused efforts to achieve another major step-down in road trauma: a substantial and sustained reduction in deaths and injuries. Measures outlined in this Action Plan have the potential to achieve such a result, get us back on track towards the 2010 target, and provide the foundations for longer term improvements.

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