An article published on major news websites this week (read it here) calls for “concerted national action” to address a spike in the nation’s road toll.
The Australian Automobile Association has called on the Australian Transport Council to move quickly in developing a road safety strategy for the next 10 years, with the current strategy having fallen short of its target of reducing road fatalities by 40%.
The Association reports that nationwide 5 people die on our roads every day, another 75 people are hospitalised and the economic cost of road trauma is estimated at $17 billion annually.
More than 1,500 people died on the nation’s roads in 2009 and motorcyclists, as usual, formed a disproportionately high percentage of those killed. Statistics from 2008 (2009 data is not yet finalised) show that there were 0.96 deaths per 10,000 registered motor vehicles, whilst 4.32 deaths were recorded per 10,000 registered motorcycles - over 4 times that of other vehicles and a trend that is consistent at least as far back as 1980. 1
.. many of these deaths and hospitalisations are avoidable, and that is one of the main drivers behind the efforts of all road safety groups ..
This is understandable, some people may say, given the vulnerability of motorcyclists in a crash, but does that make it acceptable? Try asking the families of those killed or seriously and permanently injured in a crash.
The thing that needs to be remembered here is that many of these deaths and hospitalisations are avoidable, and that is one of the main drivers behind the efforts of all road safety groups, not just MATES. But the solution to the problem is not just legislation, fixing roads, or penalising speeding drivers and riders - it is a complex problem without a simple solution.
One thing is clear. If a concerted effort is called for to reduce the national roll toll, that effort must include a strategy to specifically address the out of proportion number of motorcyclists killed or injured in road crashs.
As the number of motorcycles on our roads increases, and there is plenty of evidence that this is the case, a failure to address this issue will certainly bring about yet another failure of a road safety strategy to reduce the overall number of road deaths.
And the success of any strategy can only be achieved with mutual respect and co-operation between the motorcycling community and those authorities that attempt to govern it.
1 Data sourced from Road Safety Report No. 4 - “Road Deaths Australia 2008 Statistical Summary” May 2009 Published by Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government.
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Anyone fancy plotting a graph of deaths/injuries against lowered speed limits over the past few years?
Comment by Steve — Jan 3 @ 11:06 pmSteve, are you asking to see whether lowered speed limits have any effect on the stats ???
Comment by MATES Administration — Jan 4 @ 6:19 amLies ,damned lies and statistics…
All are a manipulated result to suit the tale teller..
Heard a statement on TV the other night about new Digital cameras having accuracy to even 1 klm over the limit ..the person then said that speed accounts as a contributing factor in 25 % of all road crashes…
Am I missing something or is 25% now bigger than the other 75%..or is it because it justifies the revenue coming from the use of these things ?
Why is money spent on Cameras and not more Enforcement staff ?
Comment by Paul W — Jan 7 @ 6:53 amCost ?
Very valid and excellent point about stats Paul, and if you drill down into the stats too deep it’s not only confusing but often you end up with something that’s totally misleading. We can all get very bogged down in numbers and miss the point of the exercise, even run off to fix a problem that turns out to be the wrong one! When I look at these particular stats (and they’re available for anyone who needs a cure for insomnia) it’s the totally out of proportion numbers for motorcyclists that stands out no matter which way we look at it. Why? I’d love to know the REAL reason, not just what the stats tell us, so we can work on it. And these cameras sound nasty - anyone want to offer Paul a comment?
Comment by Steve McDowall — Jan 7 @ 7:31 amYes i would like to see proof of lower speed limits reducing fatalities and injuries.
My opinion is that if speeds are lowered beyond the “natural” speed for any given road, fatigue is increased and therefore so are accidents.
Studies have shown in many other countries (seach the web, you will find them) that stealth speed cameras do not decrease accidents. People spend more time looking at their speed rather than the road, and therefore more likely to have an accident. In the UK for example many counties have removed speed cameras from some areas as accidents have increased.
If thy are outside schools, shopping centres, busy intersections etc.. IE places where the danger of speed is definitely apparent, i have no problem. When they are hidden along a clear open road with no intersections or houses in order to raise money, this is the issue.
In the UK advanced riding courses (such as Bikesafe) covers “making progress”. Briefly braking the speed limit to make a swift, safe overtake is acceptable. In Australia this is absolutely not acceptable. So when following someone driving 10K’s less than the speed limit, it isn’t ever safe to overtake unless you can see for about 3km’s ahead.
Driving standards in qld (in general) seem to be particularly poor, as well as the poor standard of some roads in hinterland areas, and very poor signage are all contributing to accident statistics but is not factored into them.
Not having any kind of vehicle safety certificate is also a big problem in my view. I can buy a car now and never have it checked ever again as long as the rego is renewed. This is a bizarre concept which i really don’t understand.
Comment by Steve — Jan 7 @ 5:59 pmPS recent Victorian stats claim that injuries and deaths have decreased due to use of stealth cameras.
Have they not also increased RBT sites? Perhaps less drunk drivers have caused or been involved in accidents, but this is never included in any claims of lower accident figures.
Drink driving seems to be less of a public issue as speeding.
While visiting a popular seaside town a couple of hours north of Brisbane, i saw an obituary posted on a local noticeboard about a young boy who died on his motorcycle.
He was drunk, yet the focus was that he was speeding on his motorcycle.
Comment by Steve — Jan 7 @ 6:14 pmDid you know 85% of stats are made up with on 5% of them having any relevance to the topic lol
Comment by 2010_Lo_Busa — Jan 9 @ 5:36 pmAnd apparently 76.2% of people who disagree with the statistics form 92.1% of those in them - or to put it another way - denial is a wonderful thing, until you become a statistic.
You really can’t read too much into stats other than the blatantly obvious top level undeniable truth.
Comment by Davo — Jan 10 @ 10:26 amRegardless of the fact most of us don’t trust the stats the Post was why do we do the work we do?
Comment by Paul W — Jan 16 @ 9:05 pmBecause we believe in helping others in many ways , our interest is Motorcycles therefore we want to see it done safely so more people can enjoy the fun we enjoy ..and we can continue having our fun into the future…