Federal Budget must fund road deaths investigations

Crash deaths again rose in the 12 months to 31 March, with 1,326 fatalities nationally (39 more than in the previous corresponding period), including a 16.4% rise in pedestrian deaths and cyclist deaths rising by 4.4%.

This was the 34th consecutive month that the 12-month road deaths total rose, and it means crash fatalities have risen by 20.9 per cent since the National Road Safety Strategy 2021-30 was agreed in January 2021, with the aim of halving Australia's road toll through the decade to 2030.

The AAA is calling on the Commonwealth to lead a much-needed reset of road safety management.

AAA Managing Director Michael Bradley said: "The AAA is calling on the Commonwealth to extend its powers to conduct no-blame investigations of transport fatalities beyond aviation, rail, and maritime incidents, to also examine the factors driving up our road toll.

"The starting point to addressing our worsening road toll is to understand what's causing it to rise in the first place.

"Reducing road trauma requires new road funding; regulatory change; and public education campaigns - all of which will be better targeted, more evidence-based, and more effective if informed by the work of a national investigative body."

The AAA is encouraging the Government to fund a targeted pilot focusing on one of the road safety issues of greatest concern, such as fatalities involving heavy vehicles, pedestrians or e-mobility devices. Lessons from a pilot project would not only show how no-blame investigations can help identify the underlying causes of road crashes, but also what could be done to reduce future deaths.

The latest edition of the AAA's Benchmarking the Progress of the National Road Safety Strategy (2021-30) shows that rather than delivering safety improvements, the Strategy instead delivered ongoing increases in road deaths, and after five years, three of its five headline targets remain unmeasurable.

Source: National Road Safety Data Hub

The AAA notes that the Australian Government is currently reviewing the Strategy.

Mr Bradley said: "The Federal Government must use its review of the National Strategy to correct the years-long surge in road trauma by enhancing the Commonwealth's role in transport safety.

"Many observers have different theories about why road deaths are rising nationally and why they are worse in some states than others. But we don't know who is right and we need more than guesswork to curb this growing crisis.

"We must move quickly to gather hard facts that help us identify the factors driving this rise in road deaths."

In the 12 months to 31 March 2026, the Northern Territory recorded the nation's highest rate of crash fatalities per 100,000 residents - 13.6 - despite its decline in annual road deaths. But in the previous corresponding period, the NT's fatality rate had been even higher - 18.3.

The jurisdiction with the second-highest fatality rate was Tasmania (7.6, up from 5.9 in the previous corresponding period). It was followed by Western Australia (5.7, down from 6.5), Queensland (5.7, up from 5.2), South Australia (5.0, up from 4.7), NSW (4.2, up from 3.9), Victoria (3.9, down from 4.1) and the ACT (2.7 up from 2.5). The national fatality rate was 4.8 (up from 4.7).