Australia: more fatalities and serious injuries on 60km/h roads
A research report by Austroads has analysed trends and time-related factors, vehicles, road users, road and road environment factors across Australia and New Zealand over a 10-year periodAn analysis of crash data commissioned by Austroads has found the highest numbers of fatalities and serious injuries on Australian roads occurred in 60km/h zones (28 per cent), followed by 50km/h (21), 100 km/h (18) and 80km/h (13).
The figures have been presented in a report titled 'Road Fatalities and Serious Injuries in Australia and New Zealand 2001–10', which forms the beginning of a more substantive four-year project.
Other than a specific crash by vehicle type graph, the information in the report is generally not broken down into different transport types, but there's a wealth of other elements to digest including:
- Crash trends;
- Severity of crashes in different jurisdictions;
- Crash type;
- Time of crash (month, date, time);
- Age distribution;
- Road alignment;
- Surface type;
- Road surface condition;
- Light conditions;
- Weather conditions;
- Speed zones;
- Rural or urban environments; and
- Crash location.
Key findings of this analysis include:
- Road injuries of all severities have declined in both Australia and New Zealand since 2006;
- Despite differences in the classification systems, the key crash types based on fatalities and serious injury outcomes for Australia and New Zealand are broadly similar, being off path, opposite direction, adjacent approaches, and same direction. Some changes are seen in these patterns when crash type is broken down by environment;
- Crashes between vehicles travelling in the same direction were associated with the greatest numbers of injuries on urban Australian roads, but most fatalities and serious injuries occurred in off-path crashes;
- March and May were the months with the highest casualty numbers for Australia;
- Casualty numbers were relatively low in Australia in January;
- Two peak crash periods are seen across the time of day, with a peak lasting three hours in the late afternoon, from around 3:00pm, and a smaller peak in the morning, around 8:00am. This was true for all injury types;
- Of all the fatal and serious injuries, most occurred in urban environments in Australia (62 per cent), but on rural roads in New Zealand (55 per cent);
- For both Australia and New Zealand, the greatest proportion of fatalities and serious injuries occurred at midblock locations, compared to intersections;
- Where traffic controls were in place, the greatest number of fatalities and serious injuries in Australia occurred at traffic signals (14 per cent); and
- There was a peak in fatalities and serious injuries in both Australia and New Zealand at 18 years of age, with severity outcomes (fatalities and serious injuries compared to other injury outcomes) increasing with older age, from approximately age 60;
Austroads membership comprises the six state and two territory road transport and traffic authorities, the Commonwealth Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development, the Australian Local Government Association, and NZ Transport Agency.
To read the full report, click here (you have to register and/or log in to download the PDR report).
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