Road trauma

Facts

Globally, more than 1.25 million people die in road traffic crashes every year and a further 50 million people are injured or disabled.
It is estimated that this will increase to 2.4 million deaths each year by 2030, which will make road traffic crashes the fifth leading cause of death globally.
Road traffic crashes are the number 1 cause of death among those aged 15-29 years and 3 out of 4 road deaths are men.
Although low- and middle-income countries have only half of the world’s vehicles, they suffer 90% of the world’s road traffic deaths.
Half of all road traffic deaths are among pedestrians, cyclists and motorcycles.
In Australia, nearly 1,300 people die in road traffic crashes every year and over 36,000 people are hospitalised.

Road safety strategies in Australia

The National Road Safety Strategy 2011-2020 was released in 2011 and is framed by the guiding vision that no person should be killed or seriously injured on Australian roads. To progress towards this long-term vision, the strategy presents a 10-year plan to reduce the annual number of deaths and serious injuries on Australian roads by 30%.

The National Road Safety Action Plan 2018–2020 (Action Plan) was released in 2018 to support the implementation of the National Road Safety Strategy and highlights a number of priority actions for 2018-2020. Furthermore, an independent inquiry into the effectiveness of the National Road Safety Strategy is currently underway. As part of this, a post-2020 strategy will be developed that will include consideration of emerging technologies, such as autonomous vehicles, and improvements in post-crash care to reduce deaths and ongoing disability and improve recovery from injury.