Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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Accident costs include loss of life or injury to persons, and the destruction of, and damage to equipment and infrastructure. Table 22.36 shows the number of transport-related deaths for each of the transport modes for the six years to 2002. Transport-related deaths fell from 2,038 in 1997 to 1,908 in 2002. The majority of deaths (71% in 2002) were associated with motor vehicles driven on public roads.

22.36 DEATHS(a) FROM TRANSPORT ACCIDENTS
Mode(b)	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Motor vehicles(c)	1,296	1,287	1,319	1,427	1,382	1,346
Pedestrians	388	369	373	359	352	308
Pedal cyclists	56	44	44	27	45	39
Rail	3	8	10	4	5	5
Water	50	39	57	51	49	49
Air	48	63	50	43	61	32
Other(d)	197	176	158	104	110	129
Total	2,038	1,986	2,011	2,015	2,004	1,908
(a) Based on the International Classification of Deaths, Edition 10 (ICD-10). Data in this table relate to year of registration of death and are based on death occurring up to one year following a transport accident. Data will therefore differ from the traffic fatalities shown in tables 22.37, 22.38 and 22.41 as data in those tables are based on year of occurrence of transport-related deaths which occur within 30 days of an incident. (b) Mode of transport of deceased persons. (c) Involving motor vehicles driven on public roads. (d) Includes riders of animals, agricultural equipment, all-terrain vehicles, industrial and construction vehicles, and unspecified transport accidents. Source: State and territory Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Road traffic crashes

Crashes involving fatalities

The number of road traffic crashes involving deaths in 2003 (1,457) was 4% below the number in the previous year (table 22.37). The majority of this decrease was due to a significant reduction in fatal crashes in Victoria (down 19%). All other states and territories recorded either relatively small decreases or increases.

The number of road deaths was also lower in 2003 compared with 2002, declining by 5%. The number of people killed from road traffic crashes in 2003 (1,633) was the lowest since 1949.

22.37 ROAD TRAFFIC CRASHES INVOLVING FATALITIES
	NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT	Aust.
CRASHES INVOLVING FATALITIES
1994	552	345	364	143	195	52	36	15	1,702
1995	563	371	408	163	194	53	56	14	1,822
1996	538	382	338	162	220	53	58	17	1,768
1997	525	346	322	123	184	29	56	17	1,602
1998	491	348	257	152	199	47	59	20	1,573
1999	506	345	273	132	188	47	44	17	1,552
2000	543	373	275	151	184	38	48	16	1,628
2001	486	404	296	137	151	52	43	15	1,584
2002	501	361	283	138	159	34	40	8	1,525
2003	496	294	284	136	155	39	43	10	1,457
PEOPLE KILLED
1994	646	377	418	159	211	59	41	17	1,928
1995	620	418	456	181	209	57	61	15	2,017
1996	581	417	385	181	247	64	72	23	1,970
1997	576	377	361	148	197	32	60	17	1,768
1998	556	390	279	168	223	48	69	22	1,755
1999	577	383	314	151	217	53	49	19	1,763
2000	603	407	317	166	212	43	51	18	1,817
2001	524	444	324	153	165	61	50	16	1,737
2002	561	397	322	154	179	37	55	10	1,715
2003	552	330	310	157	180	41	52	11	1,633
Source: Australian Transport Safety Bureau, Monthly Fatal Crash Database.

Road traffic fatalities

The number of deaths from road traffic crashes per 100,000 people fell from 8.7 in 2002 to 8.2 in 2003, continuing the decline since 1970, when the rate was 30.4. Road deaths per 100,000 in the Northern Territory in 2003 (26.2) were significantly higher than the national rate (table 22.38). The Northern Territory also had the highest number of fatalities per 10,000 registered vehicles (5.0). The Australian Capital Territory had the lowest rate of road deaths (3.4 per 100,000 people) in 2003. Victoria recorded the greatest drop in road deaths per 100,000 people, from 8.2 in 2002 to 6.7 in 2003 (a fall of 18%).

22.38 ROAD TRAFFIC FATALITIES
	2002			2003
	no.	per 100,000 population(a)	per 10,000 motor vehicles registered(b)	no.	per 100,000 population(a)	per 10,000 motor vehicles registered(b)
New South Wales	561	8.5	1.5	552	8.3	1.4
Victoria	397	8.2	1.2	330	6.7	0.9
Queensland	322	8.7	1.3	310	8.2	1.2
South Australia	154	10.1	1.4	157	10.2	1.5
Western Australia	179	9.3	1.3	180	9.2	1.3
Tasmania	37	7.8	1.1	41	8.6	1.2
Northern Territory	55	27.7	5.3	52	26.2	5.0
Australian Capital Territory	10	3.1	0.5	11	3.4	0.5
Australia	1,715	8.7	1.3	1,633	8.2	1.2
(a) Estimated resident population at 30 June. (b) Number of registered motor vehicles and motor cycles (excludes tractors, caravans, plant and equipment) at 31 March. Source: Motor Vehicle Census, Australia, 31 March 2003 (9309.0); Population by Age and Sex, Australian States and Territories, June 2003 (3201.0); Australian Transport Safety Bureau, Monthly Fatal Crash Database.

International comparisons of road traffic deaths

Australian road traffic deaths are compared with those for other selected OECD nations in table 22.39. Australia's rate of 8.9 road deaths per 100,000 persons in 2001 is considerably lower than the rates of France (13.8), the Republic of (South) Korea (17.2), Poland (14.3), Spain (13.8) and the United States of America (14.8). Australia's rate is, however, markedly higher than Sweden (6.2) and the United Kingdom (6.1).

Australia's rate of road deaths per 10,000 registered vehicles (1.4) was below the OECD median. For the countries listed, the Republic of (South) Korea has the highest death rate per 10,000 registered vehicles (5.8) deaths.

The number of fatalities per 100 million vehicle kilometre travelled in Australia in 2001 (0.9) was the same as that for the United States of America and less than that for France (1.5).

22.39 ROAD TRAFFIC FATALITIES, International comparisons - 2001
	People killed
					Total population
Country	no.	per 100,000 of population	per 10,000 registered vehicles	per 100 million vehicle km travelled	millions
Australia	1,737	8.9	1.4	0.9	19.4
France	8,160	13.8	2.3	1.5	59..0
Germany	6,977	8.5	1.3	1.1	82.3
Japan	10,060	7.9	1.3	-	127.3
Korea, Republic of (South)	8,097	17.2	5.8	-	47.0
New Zealand	455	11.8	1.7	-	3.9
Poland	5,534	14.3	3.8	-	38.6
Portugal	1,671	-	2.0	-	-
Spain	5,517	13.8	2.3	-	40.1
Sweden	554	6.2	1.1	-	8.9
Switzerland	544	7.6	1.2	0.9	7.2
United Kingdom	3,598	6.1	1.2	-	58.8
United States of America	42,116	14.8	1.9	0.9	284.8
OECD median	-	11.4	1.8	1.0	-
Source: Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

Rail and water transport accidents

There were 49 deaths associated with water transport accidents in 2002, unchanged from the number of deaths in 2001 (table 22.36). There were five rail transport accident-related deaths recorded in 2002, also unchanged from the number of deaths in the preceding year.

Air accidents

Since 1991 the number of aircraft accidents has declined by 52%, from 322 in 1991 to 155 in 2003 (table 22.40). In 2003 there were 54 fatalities, the same number of fatalities as occurred in 1991, and a rise of 59% compared with 2002.

22.40 AIR TRANSPORT, Accidents and fatalities(a)
	Accidents	Fatalities
1991	322	54
1992	310	66
1993	318	67
1994	266	64
1995	267	51
1996	243	51
1997	254	38
1998	227	56
1999	196	49
2000	222	46
2001	201	51
2002	164	34
2003	155	54
(a) Includes accidents in Australia, accidents to Australian registered aircraft overseas, and accidents to foreign registered aircraft occurring within the Australian Flight Information Region. Excludes ballooning accidents. Source: Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

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