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Sunday, January 27, 2013

Road Policing Statistics 2012

During the 12 months ended December 2011 there were 1,292 deaths. This was a 4.4 per cent decrease from the 12-monthly period ending December 2010. The rate of annual deaths per 100 000 population presently stands at 5.7. This is a 5.8 per cent decrease from the 12-monthly period ending December 2010 (Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics, 2011).

Over the last decade, national annual fatalities decreased by 21 per cent, fatalities per population decreased by 32 per cent, and counts of fatal crashes decreased by 21 per cent. The decline was weaker during the middle of the decade but has accelerated significantly over the last three years (Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics, 2011).

The 17–25 age group has the largest rate of fatalities per population. It accounts for 13 per cent of the population but 25 per cent of deaths. Over the decade however, the rate for this group has declined faster than the total (Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics, 2011).

Across jurisdictions the rate of deaths per population are somewhat varied, with the three largest jurisdictions achieving some of the lowest rates. The trends are not linear, and, as with deaths all jurisdictions (apart from the Australian Capital Territory) have seen rates fall significantly over the last three years (Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics, 2011).

All types of fatal crash are decreasing. Single vehicle crashes (no pedestrian involved) currently account for 44 per cent of the total. Ten years ago the proportion was 41 per cent (Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics, 2011).

Road crashes still cause some 1,400 deaths and 32,500 serious injuries each year. The social impacts are devastating - and the annual cost to the Australian economy is estimated to be $27 billion (Australian Transport Council, n.d).

Between Jan 2009 and Dec 2010, 47.4% of the fatal crashes occurred at speeds over 100km/h (Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics, 2011).

Illegal or inappropriate speeds are major contributing factors in about 34 per cent of Australian road deaths and 13 per cent of serious injuries (Australian Transport Council, n.d.).

Motorcyclists are heavily over-represented in serious crash statistics. They make up 17 per cent of all road deaths, and 22 per cent of total serious injuries (Australian Transport Council, n.d.).

Certain behavioral factors continue to be implicated in many serious casualty crashes. For all fatalities speeding accounts for 34%, drink driving 30%, drug driving 7%, restraint non-use 20% and fatigue 20-30%. For all serious injuries speeding accounts for 13 per cent, drink driving 9%, drug driving 2%, restraint non-use 4 % and fatigue 8% (Australian Transport Council, n.d.).

Heavy trucks and buses make up only three per cent of the vehicle fleet, but are involved in 18 per cent of all road fatalities — about 250 deaths each year (Australian Transport Council, n.d ).

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Horror toll prompts road blitz

Police will flood WA's roads with marked cars and speed cameras in a four-day long-weekend blitz after the road toll climbed to 19 deaths in the first three weeks of the year.

Senior WA traffic officer Cdr Kim Papalia said overtime had been approved and officers recalled to ensure police were out in force on city and country roads at the weekend.

As thousands of people take to the roads during the double demerit points period, Cdr Papalia warned that traffic police would focus on speeding, drivers also would be tested for drugs and alcohol.

"You will be seeing an increased police presence because we will be using extra hours to get extra police on the road," Cdr Papalia said. Cdr Papalia warned to expect sequence cameras - one speed camera after another on the same road.

He said police asked people not only to think of their own lives but also the lives of other road users when driving at the weekend, with the death toll at its highest in recent years.

"I'm tired of our people having to do death notifications. This year has been a very sad start to the year for 19 families and beyond that the serious crashes we've had," Cdr Papalia said.

"Our message will be, we will be out there to enforce the road rules, we will look to improve driver behaviour on the roads . . . the intent is to try and check people's behaviour."

The WA double demerit period begins at 12.01am tomorrow and ends at 11.59pm on Monday.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

SA Road Toll 93

South Australia has achieved its lowest road toll since records were kept, with serious injuries also reaching record lows.

SA Minister for Road Safety Jennifer Rankine said 93 lives were tragically lost on the State’s roads.

Previously, the record low was in 2008 when 99 people died.

“Not only has there been a significant decrease in the number of deaths, but for the first time, serious injuries have dropped below 800. Ten years ago, this figure was more than 1500,” Ms Rankine said.

“While this reduction in both deaths and serious injuries reflects a considerable achievement, there are still 93 families who are devastated by the loss of their loved ones.”

In 1974, the road toll peaked at 382 and during the 1980s about 250 lives were lost each year.

“A decade ago, our road toll was 152. Since then, vehicle manufacturers and communities have worked closely with the Government to introduce many life-saving initiatives,” she said.

“While we have come a long way, there’s still a long way to go.”

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Saturday, January 5, 2013

NSW Road Toll By Region

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How NSW aims to reduce the 2012 road toll

In 1965 car accidents killed 1151 people in NSW. In 2012 car accidents were responsible for 370 deaths.

There are three broad ways to cut the road toll further, transport bureaucrats and other experts say: these involve changes in drivers, roads and cars. With regard toTHE DRIVER, Speed kills. So do alcohol and drugs, but speed kills more. Last year speed was a factor in about 40 per cent of fatalities in NSW, about the same as the year before. (Alcohol is a factor in 19 per cent of deaths and has been for about a decade.)

In NSW, Barry O'Farrell's government is doing something to compel motorists to slow down, committing to a massive expansion in the use of speed cameras.

From this year the number of mobile speed cameras in NSW - which move from location to location - will gradually increase from six to 45, while the number of speed cameras attached to red lights in the state will more than double from 90 to 200.

''We won't make more significant gains [bringing the toll down] until we get our speed camera program,'' says the general manager of Transport for NSW's Centre for Road Safety, Marg Prendergast, adding that she is ''thrilled'' with the program Gay has announced.

But some safety experts lament that Gay has gone only half way. ''While the introduction of extra speed cameras is good, it's got to go further and we've got to have covert speed cameras,'' the chairman of road safety at the Transport and Road Safety Research unit at the University of NSW, Raphael Grzebieta, says.

Covert or unmarked speed cameras are used in Victoria. But Gay's inclination is to tack the opposite way, ensuring there will be no shortage of signs wherever one of the new cameras may be in use.

''I don't want people's money, I don't want their licence, I want to save their lives,'' he says. ''If you get caught in one of our new mobile cameras you're either dumb or determined.''

Nevertheless, signposted or not, speed cameras work. They make motorists drive more slowly, which means they are less likely to have an accident. A survey by the auditor-general in 2011 demonstrated that on average fixed speed cameras in NSW reduced the number of fatalities in their area by 67 per cent in the three years after installation. Putting police on the road works as well.

Last year Gay's department, Roads and Maritime Services, and the police conducted a number of high-profile raids on trucking companies and drivers who tampered with their vehicles so they could exceed the speed limit.

The minister said police had reported a 40 per cent fall in the number of speeding heavy vehicles since the operation.

The number of fatal accidents involving heavy vehicles increased last year from 63 to 73 in 2012. But the bulk of those were in the early part of the year. ''Targeting operators, targeting generally, peer pressure within the industry has worked a treat,'' Gay says.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Police speed blitz nabs over 1500 in Central Queensland

MORE than 1500 speeding tickets have been issued across the central region during the past 10 days.

The latest figures from the Queensland Police Service's Christmas Road Safety Campaign revealed some 300 speeders had been caught, by camera and other means, since Sunday.

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QLD - 4 new speed cams nab 16,555 on first 17 days

A bank of four speed cameras has been installed on the reverse side of the Smith St overpass at Gaven on the Gold Coast, recording the speed of every northbound car.

The cameras are identical to those further north on the M1, at Logan, where cameras on the reverse side of the Logan Motorway overpasshave raised millions of dollars in revenue since going live in 2011.

Those cameras nabbed 11,655 speeding motorists in their first 17 days of operation and boosted the number of speeding offences detected.

Police statistics show fixed speed cameras in the South East District issued 10,351 tickets in 2010-11, compared to 131,829 in 2011-12, the year the Logan camera began operating.

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