The Australasian College of Road Safety (ACRS) has urged the Federal Government to immediately address the country-wide issue of high road trauma rates.
This call to action primarily demands the establishment of a national road crash investigation agency –particularly one that mirrors the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is prevented by law from examining road crashes, instead investigating air, marine and rail incidents.
Australian roads reportedly experience ten times the amount of fatalities than in air, marine and rail transport combined.
ACRS CEO, Dr Ingrid Johnston, expressed her frustration on the matter.
“Road trauma continues to devastate Australian communities, with over 1,300 fatalities and tens of thousands of serious injuries occurring annually,” she said.
“When there’s a crash on a plane, boat or train, we do an in-depth investigation to find out why it happened and how we can prevent it from ever happening again.
“Road users deserve the same level of investigative oversight to reduce these tragedies.”
According to the most recent transport safety data from the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE), there is a clear gap in the identification and mitigation of factors contributing to road trauma. Road safety experts continue to address preventable causes of crashes – speeding, drink-driving and driver fatigue among others – while focus on comprehensive and systematic crash investigations is absent.
The ACRS has emphasised that the creation of a national road crash investigation agency would complement existing efforts in the space, including state-based crash analyses and local road safety initiatives, and believes that collaboration between these bodies would strengthen Australia’s capacity to achieve its National Road Safety Strategy targets, saving lives as a result.
The ACRS continues to call on all levels of government, industry stakeholders, and the broader community to support this initiative.
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