A new report has shown the number of deaths and serious injuries on Western Australia’s roads is coming down every year.
However, despite the drop, the downward trend is not moving fast enough to meet the State Government’s Driving Change Road Safety Strategy 2020-2030, which aims to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured by 50 to 70 per cent by 2030.
The annual WA Road Fatalities and Serious Injuries report shows the number of people killed or seriously injured on WA roads and also collects a range of data including age, gender, geographical and other contributing factors to track trends that impact the road toll over time.
The report shows last year 188 people died on Western Australian Roads, 114 in regional areas and 74 in the Perth metropolitan area.
While there was an increase in the number of fatalities from 2023 to 2024, the number of people seriously injured decreased.
Per 100,000 population, the number of people killed and seriously injured in 2024 decreased by 14 per cent compared with the five-year average.
“While the state’s population increases by two to three per cent annually, the number of those killed and seriously injured is coming down every year,” Road Safety Commissioner Adrian Warner said.
“But despite this figure, the reality is we aren’t meeting our Driving Change Road Safety Strategy targets to reduce the number of people fatally or seriously injured in road crashes by 50 to 70 per cent by 2030.
“That’s disappointing, but we will continue to work together with Main Roads WA and WA Police to implement new programs and research new ways to accelerate our targets.”
According to the report, speed remains the primary contributing factor to road crashes. In 2024, almost half of all fatalities occurred on roads with a speed limit of 100km/h or more, most of these in regional areas.
The report also showed that regional areas had 61 per cent of all fatalities, a nine per cent increase from 2023.
