ACCIDENTS, INJURIES AND FATALITIES

TRANSPORT-RELATED DEATHS

Table 24.19 shows the number of transport-related deaths for each of the transport modes for 2008 and 2009. Transport-related deaths fell from 1,524 in 2008 to 1,477 in 2009. The majority of deaths (72% in 2009) were associated with motor vehicles driven on public roads. Pedestrian deaths fell from 206 in 2008 to 194 in 2009, while the number of pedal cyclist deaths increased from 26 to 35, and the number of water deaths increased from 33 to 35.

24.19 TRANSPORT-RELATED DEATHS(a)
Mode(b)	2008	2009
Motor vehicles(c)	1 151	1 059
Pedestrians	206	194
Pedal cyclists	26	35
Water	33	35
Air	42	27
Other(d)	66	127
Total	1 524	1 477
(a) Based on the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition (ICD-10). Data in this table relate to the reference year shown and are based on death occurring up to one year following a transport crash or other incident. Data will, therefore, differ from the traffic fatalities shown in tables 24.20, 24.21 and 24.24 and graphs 24.22 and 24.23, as these data are based on year of occurrence of transport-related deaths that occur within 30 days of an incident.
(b) Mode of transport of deceased persons.
(c) Involving motor vehicles driven on public roads.
(d) Includes deaths occurring on rail, agricultural equipment, all terrain vehicles, industrial and construction vehicles, incidents involving riders of animals, and unspecified transport accidents.
Source: ABS data available on request, Causes of Death collection.

ROAD TRAFFIC CRASHES

Crashes involving fatalities

The number of fatal road traffic crashes in 2010 (1,248) fell by 98 compared with 2009 (table 24.20). Between 2009 and 2010, fatal crashes in the Northern Territory rose by 48%, while Tasmania and Queensland recorded the greatest falls – of 44% and 20% respectively.

The number of people killed was lower in 2010 (1,367) compared with 2009 (1,489), a fall of 8%. The number of people killed in the Northern Territory increased from 31 in 2009 to 49 in 2010, a rise of 58%. The number of people killed in the Australian Capital Territory and Western Australia also increased (50% and 2%), while all the other states recorded fewer people killed, with Tasmania having the greatest fall (51%).

24.20 ROAD TRAFFIC CRASHES INVOLVING FATALITIES
	NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT	Aust.
FATAL CRASHES
2009	408	268	296	104	176	52	31	11	1 346
2010	381	260	236	105	176	29	46	15	1 248
PEOPLE KILLED
2009	453	290	331	119	190	63	31	12	1 489
2010	421	288	249	118	193	31	49	18	1 367
Source: Department of Infrastructure and Transport.

Road traffic fatalities

The number of deaths from road traffic crashes per 100,000 persons fell from 6.8 in 2009 to 6.1 in 2010. In 1970, the rate was 30.4. Road deaths per 100,000 persons in the Northern Territory in 2010 (21.3) were significantly higher than the national rate (table 24.21). The Australian Capital Territory had the lowest rate of road deaths (5.0 per 100,000 persons) in 2010. Tasmania recorded the greatest decrease in road deaths per 100,000 persons, from 12.5 in 2009 to 6.1 in 2010 (a fall of 51%), followed by Queensland (26%) and New South Wales (8.3%).

The Northern Territory had the highest number of fatalities per 10,000 registered vehicles (2.9) in 2010, an increase of 61% compared with 2009. Between 2009 and 2010, fatalities per 10,000 registered vehicles fell the most in Tasmania, from 1.3 to 0.5, a fall of 58%.

24.21 ROAD TRAFFIC FATALITIES
	2009			2010
	no.	per 100,000 persons(a)	per 10,000 motor vehicles registered(b)	no.	per 100,000 persons(a)	per 10,000 motor vehicles registered(b)
New South Wales	453	6.35	0.71	421	5.82	0.63
Victoria	290	5.32	0.51	288	5.19	0.49
Queensland	331	7.48	0.71	249	5.51	0.51
South Australia	119	7.33	0.80	118	7.17	0.68
Western Australia	190	8.45	0.77	193	8.40	0.79
Tasmania	63	12.52	1.30	61	6.11	0.54
Northern Territory	31	13.71	1.79	49	21.33	2.88
Australian Capital Territory	12	3.40	0.34	18	5.02	0.46
Australia	1 489	6.78	0.69	1 367	6.12	0.61
(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: Department of Infrastructure and Transport.

Road fatalities and fatality rates - 1926 to 2010

Australian road fatalities for the period 1926 to 2010 are shown in graph 24.22. Road fatalities per 10,000 registered vehicles and 100,000 persons for the same period are shown in graph 24.23. Until 1970, each year other than those during the Great Depression and World War II, had seen a steady growth in motor vehicle ownership and a corresponding increase in road deaths. By 1970, the number of vehicles had increased 12-fold over the number in 1926 and the road toll had increased about four times to reach its highest mark of 3,798 deaths. The number of fatalities per 100,000 people also peaked in 1970 at 30.4. The road toll in 2010 of 1,367 was 36% of the 1970 figure, while the number of fatalities per 100,000 persons (6.1) for 2010 was slightly more than a fifth of that of 1970. Also, while there were 8.0 road fatalities per 10,000 registered vehicles in 1970, this rate had decreased to less than one in 2010 (0.6).




Characteristics of fatal crashes

Two characteristics of fatal crashes for 2005 and 2010 are shown in table 24.24.

In both 2005 and 2010, the greatest proportion of fatal crashes occurred on roads where the posted speed limit was 100 kilometres per hour (km/h) and above (47% in 2010), followed by roads with a speed limit of up to 60 km/h (28%). A further 22% of fatal crashes in 2010 occurred on roads with speed zones of between 65 km/h and 90 km/h.

In both 2005 and 2010, the highest proportion of fatal crashes were single vehicle crashes (44% in both years) followed by multiple vehicle crashes (40% in 2005 and 42% in 2010). Pedestrian crashes accounted for 15% of crash types in 2005 and 14% in 2010.

24.24 CHARACTERISTICS OF FATAL CRASHES
		2005		2010
		no.	%	no.	%
Speed limit at crash site(a)(b)
	Up to 60 km/h	453	30.8	353	28.3
	65–90 km/h	312	21.2	279	22.4
	100 km/h and above(c)	671	45.6	588	47.1
Type of crash
	Pedestrian	224	15.2	173	13.9
	Single vehicle	654	44.4	551	44.2
	Multiple vehicle	594	40.4	524	42.0
(a) Excludes crashes with unrecorded posted speed limit.
(b) Speed zone is not coded for ACT crashes.
(c) Includes zones of unrestricted speed.
Source: Department of Infrastructure and Transport.

AIR ACCIDENTS

Between 2001 and 2010, the number of aircraft involved in accidents declined by 17%, from 151 in 2001 to 126 in 2010, with a low of 92 in 2006 (graph 24.25). The number of aircraft involved in fatal accidents declined from 18 in 2001 to 13 in 2010 with a low of 6 in 2002. In 2010, there were 16 fatalities involving registered civil aircraft, the same as 2009. This was a decrease of 48% from 2001.

 

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