Australia’s AAA Warns Old Cars Unsafe

Despite record new-vehicle sales in recent years, Australia’s still-aging light-vehicle fleet is costing lives.

Research commissioned by the 8 million-member Australian Automobile Assn. shows the average age of passenger vehicles at 9.8 years and light-commercial vehicles at 10.4 years is high compared with international peers.

Reducing the average by just one year, AAA says, would save 1,377 lives over the next 20 years.

It also would result in a 5.4% decline in road crashes and emissions-reduction benefits worth A$19.7 billion ($15.2 billion), directly saving the government A$3.3 billion ($2.5 billion) over the same period.

The report says the average age of Australia’s light-vehicle fleet has remained static over the past 10 years, and although one year’s reduction would not be great enough to bring Australia into line with other countries, the benefits are too great to ignore.

The research was compiled with data commissioned from Economic Connections (ECON), Pekol Traffic and Transport and Monash University Accident Research Center.

AAA CEO Michael Bradley says the report highlights the benefits of removing obsolete federal tariffs and taxes, originally imposed to protect Australia’s defunct car-manufacturing industry.

The combined impact of the taxes and tariffs – a 5% tariff on imported vehicles and a luxury-car tax – will add almost A$5 billion ($3.85 billion) to the price of new cars over the next four years.

“The Australian government has an opportunity to make a large difference to the price of new cars,” Bradley says in a statement. “Getting Australians into newer cars will deliver real safety and environmental benefits for the community.’’

The report forms the basis of the AAA’s  2017-2018 pre-budget submission to the federal government that argues for greater investment in road infrastructure to reduce road fatalities and injuries and a range of measures to reduce congestion.