Road death tolls & ways of prevention

Long term trend in deaths
• While there is evidence of a long term downward trend in Australian road deaths, the
number of deaths per annum has not changed markedly since 2003.
Change in deaths since 2006
• In 2007, there were 1,616 persons killed in 1,466 road crashes. Compared with 2006, this was a 1.1 per cent increase in deaths and a 0.9 per cent increase in fatal crashes.
• The pattern of change varied substantially between jurisdictions.
Fatality numbers:
– Decreased in Tasmania (14.5 per cent), NSW (9.9 per cent) and Victoria (0.9 per cent).
– Increased in the Northern Territory (33.3 per cent), Western Australia (15.8 per cent),
the ACT (7.7 per cent), Queensland (7.2 per cent) and South Australia (6.0 per cent).
• Among different road user groups :
– Driver deaths increased by 4.9 per cent.
– Passenger deaths increased 1.5 per cent.
– Pedestrian deaths decreased 11.5 per cent.
– Motorcyclist deaths stayed constant.
– Cyclist deaths increased by two deaths.
Five year trends
• Between 2002 and 2007, road deaths decreased by an average annual rate of 0.9 per cent.
The average annual decrease for females was 2.5 per cent, and for males 0.3 per cent.
• Estimated five year trends varied across jurisdictions:
– The largest average annual decrease was in South Australia (5.3 per cent), followed by
NSW (3.9 per cent), Victoria (2.2 per cent) and the Northern Territory (0.4 per cent).
– The largest average annual increase was in the ACT (9.7 per cent), followed by
Tasmania (5.7 per cent), Western Australia (4.8 per cent) and Queensland (2.4 per
cent).
• Five year trends also varied across road user groups:
– Passenger deaths decreased by an annual average rate of 5.1 per cent.
– Pedestrian deaths decreased by an annual average rate of 3.1 per cent.
– Driver deaths increased by an annual average of rate 0.4 per cent.
– Motorcyclist deaths increased by an annual average rate of 3.6 per cent.
– Cyclist deaths increased by an annual average rate of 6.2 per cent.
Rates of road deaths per population
• The rate of road crash deaths per population during 2007 was 7.7 deaths per 100,000 population. This is the same as the rate during 2006.

PREVENTION
1)The Lancet medical journal on June 20, Robert Tibshirani of the Stanford University School of Medicine reported on a study of drivers in Ontario, Canada which indicated that tickets do reduce crashes and save lives. Tibshirani's research indicated that one life is saved for every 80,000 tickets, and one emergency department visit for every 1,300 tickets.
2)New technology- Intelligent Speed Adaptations (ISA) - accelerator pedals become tougher after particular speed causing you to reduce speed because its more effort.
3) The wipe off 5- the speeding campaigns
4) NO drink driving
5) Dont drive wen ure tired- the billboards with the messages to take a 15 min power nap
6) Seat belt regulations
7) What Froetscher and the National Safety Council is calling from an across the board ban on the use of cell phones while driving as studies that have been done by the government and universities have shown that hands free wireless devices have not aided in helping drivers to concentrate and might even be more dangerous in some cases.
8) Dont drive if you dont have a licence.... - Chris Brown got away with it coz he was rich ;p ...
9) Try to do one thing at a time and concentrate whilst you drive because not only are you putting your life at risk but also everyone else on the road.


References:
http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/safety/publications/2008/pdf/Ann_Stats_2007.pdf
http://www.drivers.com/article/636/
http://www.readersdigest.com.au/discovery-channel-mag/new-technologies-to-reduce-road-accidents/article91290.html
http://www.lawtech2008.org/?tag=cell-phone-accident