Oz Road Deaths Rise Despite Safer Cars, Better Roads

The Australian Automobile Assn. calls for a government-funded inquiry into the country’s increase in highway deaths at a time when new vehicles and roads have never been safer.

New figures show almost no progress has been made in reducing fatalities since a countrywide road-safety strategy was approved in 2011.

A report by Australia’s leading motoring organization benchmarks the strategy, which set a target of reducing road deaths at least 30% by 2020.

The report finds no real progress has been made since the strategy was agreed upon. Some 1,300 Australians died in road mishaps last year, up 7.9% from 2015, and 30,000 people were seriously injured.

AAA CEO Michael Bradley says an inquiry should examine why 40 years of improvement is backsliding so dramatically.

“The human cost is immense,” Bradley says. “However, road trauma is also costing our economy about A$34 billion ($25.6 billion) every year.

“This level of death, injury, and cost should not be accepted on our roads and it’s time the Australian government sought to clarify why our national road safety strategy has stalled, so that efforts to reduce road trauma can be refocused.”

The AAA is calling for an extension of the government’s keys2drive program, which provides a free lesson with a professional driving instructor to learners and their supervising driver. Government funding for the program ends June 20.

It also wants continued funding for the Australasian New Car Assessment Program, which provides consumers with vehicle safety ratings. There now is no government funding beyond the 2017-18 financial year.

With the end of local vehicle production, AAA also wants to the government remove all remaining tariffs and car taxes designed to protect the Australian automotive sector, a move it says will make newer, safer vehicles more affordable.