Urgent action is needed to bring down the state’s road toll, according to the Royal Automobile Association (RAA) of South Australia. The warning comes after a national report revealed South Australia will fail to meet its 2020 target to cut deaths and serious injuries.
The National Road Safety Strategy Benchmarking report published by Australian Automotive Association (AAA) showed that, by population, South Australia is lagging behind Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland in its bid to reduce road deaths, and that Australia as a nation is on course to miss its target to reduce road deaths by 30 percent.
“The 2018 road toll was a record low, but more than 40 tragic crash deaths in the first four months of 2019 have thrown this positive trend firmly into reverse, and devastated the lives of many families,” said RAA’s Senior Manager of Road Safety Charles Mountain.
The report shows that South Australia currently has a road fatality rate of 5.23 per 100,000 population, placing it above the national rate of 4.67 and significantly above Victoria, the state with the lowest road fatality rate of 3.63 per 100,000 population.
“If South Australia matched Victoria’s road fatality rate, we would save 28 lives a year based on our current fatality numbers, but to achieve this we need action from all levels of government,” Mountain said.
“South Australia needs to act now to stop the carnage on our roads, so we’re calling on the next Federal Government to adopt all 12 recommendations in the 2018 National Road Safety Strategy Inquiry.”
