Road toll in Australia, 1983 to 2008
Road toll in New Zealand, 1951 to 2008

Road toll is the term used in New Zealand and Australia for the number of deaths caused annually by road accidents.

New Zealand

New Zealand reports a daily, monthly, quarterly and annual nationwide road toll,[1] plus special period figures for a number of holiday periods:[2]

  • Christmas – New Year : between 4pm on 24 December (22 or 23 December if 24 December falls on a weekend) and 6am on 3 January (4 or 5 January if 1 and/or 2 January fall on a weekend or 2 January falls on a Friday).
  • Easter — from 4pm on the day before Good Friday and 6am the following Tuesday.
  • Queen's Birthday — from 4pm on the Friday before the first Monday in June to 6am the following Tuesday.
  • Labour Day Weekend — from 4pm on the Friday before the last Monday in October to 6am the following Tuesday.

The road toll includes deaths which occur within 7 days of a road accident as a result of injuries received in the accident. Deaths of pedestrians and cyclists are included, but deaths from vehicular accidents not on legal roads (e.g. on farms) are excluded.

The New Zealand road toll has exhibited a downward trend since the late 1980s through to 2010, which was attributed to a number of factors:

  • A reduction in drink driving, due to public education and strict policing.
  • Improvements in vehicle safety.
  • An increase in the wearing of seat belts due to public education
  • Hazard mitigation works on dangerous stretches of road.
  • Reduction of speed limits in some accident blackspots and areas frequented by vulnerable road users.

Recent road toll figures

Road toll statistics are available from as far back as 1921, when records began. A peak was reached with 843 deaths in 1973. Here are some figures from the last few years (dashes indicate figures not published or unavailable).[3][4][5]

New Zealand Road Deaths and reported injury casualties 1990-2016
YearRoad deathsFatal crashesNo. of injuries
2012308-12,122
2013253-11,781
2014293-11,219
2015317-12,270
201632728512,456
201737834414,039
201837814,696
201935014,742
2020318292
2021318285
2022372335
2023343306

Deaths per capita

Road deaths and injuries per capita since 2000.[3][5]

YearPopulation (000)Vehicles (000)No. of fatalitiesPer 100,000 populationPer 10,000 vehiclesNo. of injuriesPer 100,000 populationPer 10,000 vehicles
20003830.82601.746212.11.81096228642.1
20013850.12633.245511.81.71236832147.0
20023939.12709.540510.31.51391835351.4
20034009.22801.046111.51.61437235951.3
20044060.92920.743510.71.51389034247.6
20054098.33030.44059.91.31445135347.7
20064139.53124.33939.51.31517436748.6
20074228.33189.142110.01.31601337950.2
20084268.63247.83668.61.11517435646.7
20094315.83220.33848.91.21454133745.2
20104367.83230.63758.61.21403132143.4
20114405.33233.62846.40.91257428538.9
20124433.03250.13086.90.91212227337.3
20134471.13304.72535.70.81178126435.6
20144509.93398.12936.50.91121924933.0
20154596.73514.83196.90.91227026734.9
20164693.03656.33277.00.91245626534.1
20174,7653,8273787.9114,03929936.7
20184,8413,9753787.8114,69630437
20194,9204,0763527.20.914,74230036.2

By types of road user

A break down of the types of road users involved in the road death toll since 2010.[3] [6]

YearDriversPassengersMotor CyclistsCyclistsPedestriansOtherTotal
Highest:307(1987)250 (1973)146(1988)41 (1957)157 (1973)--
Lowest:49 (1952)49 (2013)28 (2003)5(2016)25 (2015/2016)
2010180985010362375
201115061339310284
201213582508330308
201312549398302253
2014127704310430293
201515775546252319
201616378525254327
201716166341632309
201819192456404378
2019173795113293348
2020158645311302318
202117072437251318
2022202645019361372
202318472539250343

By age

The following table gives the number of road toll deaths by age group from 2010. The total killed includes unknown aged fatalities.[3]

Year0–14 years15–24 years25–39 years40–59 years60+ yearsTOTAL
201018113768385375
20111182467965284
20121462687884308
2013664417664253
20141361666981293
2015884737974319
20161782649371327
20171266797576309
20181869676584303
20192340548768272
20201064738388318
20211462928070318
20229739286101372
2023876997090343

By region

Local Body boundary changes mean that records have been kept from 1980 onwards. In November 2010, the Auckland Super City was established. The figures have been altered for Auckland and other regions to allow for this development.[3]

REGIONLowest TotalHighest Total20122013201420152016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Northland 7 (2011)54 (1989)1821182327 28 27 25 23
Auckland 36 (2014)197 (1987)4148365246 54 46 34 25
Waikato 33 (2013)141 (1991)6533486979 54 58 65 50
Bay of Plenty 18 (2013)70 (1987)2318302931 19 29 32 24
Gisborne / Hawke's Bay 10 (2013)64 (1986)3110191516 23 18 17 26
Taranaki 7 (2013)45 (1991)17711812 2 15 15 11
Manawatu/Wanganui 15 (2013)81 (1987)2915342816 28 36 16 26
Wellington 10 (2015)71 (1987)1118121016 12 10 8 11
Nelson / Marlborough 5 (2015)27 (1984)997510 12 7 5 11
West Coast 3 (1996)18 (2001)79974 6 3 3 2
Canterbury 32 (2009)96 (1989)3349384734 45 38 35 23
Otago 11 (2009)43 (1988)1714191820 13 9 12 18
Southland 2 (2013)25 (1984)7212816 13 7 5 8

Trucks

Around 20% of deaths involve trucks,[7] though trucks form only about 3% of traffic on the roads.[8] A speed study of 188 trucks found 86% took corners faster than the recommended speed and, of truck crashes on the Kaikōura coast, 73% had rolled on a corners with an advisory speed sign.[9]

Tourist road toll

Overseas licence holders are involved in just over 6 percent of fatal and injury crashes.[10] In 2016 overseas drivers (those with an overseas drivers licence) were involved in 24 fatal traffic crashes, 114 serious injury crashes and 506 minor injury crashes. In comparison, in total in New Zealand in 2016, there were 286 fatal crashes, 2,099 serious injury crashes and 7,583 minor injury crashes.[11] Over the five years from 2012-2016, 6.2 percent of fatal and injury crashes involved an overseas driver. Over the same period, 4.1 percent of all drivers involved in crashes were overseas drivers. In 2019 6 fatal crashes involved overseas drivers, killing 17 people.[12]

Australia

In Australia the road toll is reported at a state level. Similar to New Zealand, Australia also reports national figures for special holidays, though usually only for the Christmas and Easter holiday periods.

In 2010, 1367 people lost their lives in road traffic crashes in Australia.[13] While strategies to reduce road toll, including legislation, improvements to vehicle's which help to make them safer, and educational programs have been developed by the national government, under the 1992 Road Safety Strategy, it is up to the local governments to adopt and enforce these policies.[14] The state of Victoria has implemented several initiatives such as speed camera, random alcohol breath tests, and an integrated state trauma system, which have successfully reduced the number of deaths caused by road traffic crashes.[15]

Random breath testing ("RBT"), utilized throughout Australia, differs from the sobriety check-points commonly used in other countries. In Australia, random breath testing is accomplished by setting up a highly visible road block, wherein all drivers passing through are asked to take an alcohol breath test, regardless of whether there is any cause to believe the driver has been drinking.[16] RBT was shown to reduce alcohol related road toll by 8–71% in fourteen different studies reviewed by Dr. Corinne Peek-Asa.[17] Requiring motorists and passengers to wear seat belts appears to have reduced the road toll in Australia.[18]

See also

References

  1. "Road crash statistics". Ministry of Transport, New Zealand.
  2. "Holiday road crash statistics". Ministry of Transport, New Zealand.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Te Marutau — Ngā mate i ngā rori | Safety — Death on NZ roads since 1921". Ministry of Transport. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  4. "Te Marutau — Ngā mate i ngā rori | Safety — Road deaths". Ministry of Transport. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  5. 1 2 "Te Marutau — Ngā tatauranga ā-tau | Safety — Annual statistics". Ministry of Transport. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  6. "Road crash statistics". Ministry of Transport, New Zealand.
  7. "Te Marutau — Ngā tatauranga ā-tau | Safety — Annual statistics". Ministry of Transport. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  8. "Ngā waka rori | Road transport". Ministry of Transport. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  9. "Speed limits". www.nzta.govt.nz. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  10. Overseas drivers in crashes
  11. NZ Transport Overseas Driver Fatalities (Page 3 of PDF)
  12. "Te Marutau — Ngā tatauranga ā-tau | Safety — Annual statistics". Ministry of Transport. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  13. "Accidents Injuries and Fatalities: Transport Related Deaths". 1301.0 – Year Book Australia (2012). Australian Bureau of Statistics. 24 May 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  14. "Vehicle Collisions in Australia". NSW Compensation Lawyers. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  15. Atkin, C; Freedman, I; Rosenfeld, J; Fitzgerald, M; Kossmann, T (November 2005). "The evolution of an integrated state trauma system in Victoria, Australia". Injury. 36 (11): 1277–87. doi:10.1016/j.injury.2005.05.011. PMID 16214472.
  16. Homel, R (1990). "Random Breath Testing and Random Stopping Programs in Australia" (PDF). In Wilson, R.J.; Mann, R.E. (eds.). Drinking and Driving: Advances in Research and Prevention. Guilford Press. ISBN 978-0898621709.
  17. Peek-Asa, C (January 1999). "The Effect of Random Alcohol Screening in Reducing Motor Vehicle Crash Injuries". American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 16 (1): 57–67. doi:10.1016/S0749-3797(98)00116-0.
  18. Bhattacharyya, M; Layton, A (1979). "Effectiveness of Seat Belt Legislation on the Queensland Road Toll – An Australian Case Study in Intervention Analysis". Journal of the American Statistical Association. 74 (367): 596–603. doi:10.1080/01621459.1979.10481655.

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