RAC has joined with other motoring clubs, the Australian Automobile Association (AAA) and partners to undertake a major campaign for safer roads.
National partnership
- The National Safer Roads Project is designed to assist in meeting the National Road Safety Strategy target of a 40 percent reduction in fatalities by 2010 (in today's terms, saving 700 lives every year).
- It could free up to 9,000 hospital beds.
- It could release $6 billion from road crash costs for use on health, education and community projects every year.
- It could be the most important social initiative ever in Australia.
Safer roads project
- Safer Roads is a national project building on a cooperative effort from all sections of the community ' government, industry, community and business organisations, health professionals and road users.
- Safer Roads recognises that road trauma is not just a narrow transport issue but is a serious, national preventable public health and community safety issue.
Safer Roads is about investing today to overcome this public health and community safety problem so that we may recover a huge social dividend tomorrow.
The facts
Every year on Australian roads there are:
- 600,000 reported road crashes.
- 200,000 treated injuries.
- 22,000 serious injuries requiring long-term hospital and community care.
- 1,750 people killed.
According to the Bureau of Regional and Transport Economics:
- Road crashes waste $15 billion every year in health, social welfare, lost productivity, insurance, legal, personal and other costs.
- That's equal to Australia's annual defence budget, more than three times Australia's annual university funding, and five times the value of Australia's annual wool exports.
- Instead of wasting so much money on what is a preventable problem, we could be spending that money on community benefits such as better health services, education, infrastructure improvements and the environment.
Figure 1: Annual costs of road crashes $million (BTRE, 2000).
Road trauma is not someone else's problem
- It is a challenge each of us can help meet through involvement in the Safer Roads Project. Many accidents occur because we, as people, do make mistakes. Unfortunately the equipment we use, the way we use it and the roads we drive on are not that forgiving of such mistakes by ourselves or others.
- Road users can contribute by:
- Using the road network more responsibly
- Recognising the importance of attention to the driving task and the road rules.
- Eliminating the danger demons - drink driving, speeding, failing to wear seatbelts, driving when tired.
- Vehicle manufacturers and importers can contribute by:
- Ensuring the rapid introduction of new technologies in safety of their cars and trucks in Australia.
- Working with road authorities to ensure vehicle and road infrastructure compatibility.
- Making safer vehicles their main priority from design to manufacture and promotion of their products.
- Governments can contribute by:
- Pursuing 'best practice' road safety options.
- Building safer new roads.
- Making existing roads more forgiving.
- Demanding safer vehicles through fleet purchases.
- Effectively regulating and enforcing vehicle and driver standards and by actively encouraging the adoption of Intelligent Transport Systems.
- Business can help by:
- Actively promoting and rewarding safer road use by employees, suppliers and distributors.
- Demanding safer vehicles through fleet purchases and by using the Safer Roads brand to indicate support.
- The National Road Safety Strategy has identified the activities that should save lives (and reduce serious injury).
- The strategy targets a 40% reduction in fatalities (700 lives) by 2010 from improved road infrastructure, improved vehicle safety, improved road user behaviour and new technology.
Figure 2: National Road Safety Strategy estimates of annual fatality reductions by category (NRSS, 2000).
The dividend
If we meet the National Road Safety Strategy target of a 40% reduction in fatalities by 2010, we could:
- Save the community $6 billion dollars a year, every year.
- And more importantly, reduce the road trauma in our society and prevent many lives from being unnecessarily shattered.