Review reveals road safety strategy’s flaws

New data shows 1,334 people died on Australian roads in the 12 months to 30 September 2026, up 0.2% from the previous corresponding 12-month period. Cyclist deaths rose particularly sharply – up 35.0%.

Road deaths have risen by 21.6% since January 2021 when federal, state and territory governments agreed on the National Road Safety Strategy 2021-30 with the aim of halving the road toll through the decade to 2030.

The Strategy’s Mid-term Review – released last month – concludes that Australia’s road trauma management must use national leadership and data to focus on efforts that will have the most impact.

AAA Managing Director Michael Bradley said: “This review should be a wake-up call for every government in Australia. We need a national policy reset because we won’t get better results by pursuing the same failed approach.”

“Crash fatalities are substantially above the National Road Safety Strategy target, and Australia needs national leadership to curb the ongoing rise in road deaths.

“States and territories are implementing very different approaches to both

longstanding and emerging road safety issues without providing evidence of their relative effectiveness. Australia’s disjointed approach to road trauma management must change.”

“We need accountability and transparency so we can identify what’s going wrong, why it’s going wrong, and what can be done to fix it.”

The latest edition of the AAA’s Benchmarking the Progress of the National Road Safety Strategy (2021-30) quantifies the lack of progress towards the Strategy’s targets.