Oz Government to Review Road Safety As Deaths Rise

The Australian government is to hold a national inquiry into its road-safety strategy.

Australia’s chief motoring body, the Australian Automobile Assn., says it’s a good move.

“The failings of Australia’s current national road-safety strategy have been of concern to the AAA for some time, and we look forward to playing an active role in the announced inquiry,” AAA CEO Michael Bradley says in a statement.

Australian road deaths have increased for the past two years after decades of decline.

There were 1,289 fatalities last year, 1,290 in 2015 and 1,153 in 2014 – the lowest total in the previous 47 years.

The inquiry announcement was made in the annual budget that AAA calls a win for road safety. The federal government is increasing spending on transport infrastructure projects to more than A$70 billion ($51.4 billion) from 2013-14 to 2020-21.

It includes A$16 million ($11.75 million) to provide about 200,000 free lessons to learner drivers.

Another A$684.5 million ($502.6 million) from 2013-14 to 2020-21 is earmarked for improvements such as safety barriers and street lighting to sections of dangerous roads that have a crash history.

During the same period, A$4.4 billion ($3.2 billion) will be spent on construction, repairs and upgrades of local roads.

But the AAA is disappointed the government continues to collect import duties on vehicles, forcing Australians to pay an extra A$4.7 billion ($3.45 billion) for newer, cleaner and safer cars.

The duties originally were imposed to protect the local automaking industry, which will shut down this year.

The AAA also remains concerned about the proportion of fuel excise-tax revenue returned to investment in land-transport infrastructure.

Motorists will pay A$12.5 billion ($9.2 billion) in fuel taxes in 2017-18, up from A$12.0 billion ($8.8 billion) in 2016-17.

However, AAA says forward estimates show the proportion returned to land-transport infrastructure will fall from 66% in 2017-18 to 30% in 2020-21.

“Motorists continue to pay more in fuel excise (taxes), yet will see fewer of those dollars returned to them in the form of better land-transport infrastructure in coming years,” Bradley says.

The AAA also is irked by the government’s failure to establish an on-road vehicle-emissions-testing regime, calling it a missed opportunity.

The organization says Australia’s first such program found vehicles are using up to 60% more fuel on the road than is indicated in government-mandated laboratory tests.

“The Volkswagen scandal has shown we don’t know what’s currently coming from the exhaust pipes of our cars, because lab tests cannot be trusted,” Bradley says. “We will continue to urge the government to introduce real-world vehicle emissions tests to better protect consumers and our environment.”