Thread: Lowest road toll in 90 years - why?

You left out the medical factor. You are simply far more likely to survive serious injury now than 20 years ago.

Yes, that's quite true.

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The ubiquity of mobile phones and the steady increase in mobile coverage also cuts the critical response time to the scene of a crash.

Don't forget with the demise of Holden, in a few years the Commodore will be a collectable classic if not already. The potential road toll statistics kept them home in the garage.
Anyone want to invest in mine? I'll drop the price to $1.2 mil.

Hi DiscoMick and a factor that is never shown is the actual amount of miles being travelled in a given year.

With the huge jump in the cost of fuel, and other effects, what are the total mileage travelled figures for each year and how would these figures factor in to helping reduce the death toll?

I can only speak for my local area but the traffic has been way down on what it usually is.

Two weeks ago I went for a drive to Warwick and back and same thing, none of us could get over how light the traffic was.

I think that there are multiple factors -

Newer cars are safer (abs, air bags, crumple zones, side intrusion bars, disc brakes, safer tyres, seat belts, stability control systems, etc)

More reliable cars that don't break down as often - or as badly as old ones. Anybody that has driven a car with a single brake circuit that has failed can attest to that!

Better roads - most freeways have dividers in them compared to back in the 70's when raods like the Hume Highway didn't. Plus a lot of freeways by-pass towns so less of a chance of collecting those pesky pedestrians! How many dirt roads are there now (in suburban areas) compared to years ago? Not many I would guess.

Speed cameras - before you say it, NO I don't think that speed cameras save lives. But I do think that a by product of speed cameras is that some people just don't bother speeding anymore as there is a higher risk of getting caught. Physics don't lie - the faster you go, the harder you hit..!

Booze Buses - I think that years ago it was fairly common to drink and drive "if you drink and drive you are a bloody idiot, if you don't spill any you are a bloody legend". I don't think people think the same about this now...

More police / un-marked cars? I drive on the Hume freeway every day and have seen such a varied amount of un-marked cars, it amazes me.. It's not just un-marked commodores anymore - I have seen utes, 4WDs, bmw, mazda, etc - not worth speeding anymore! Not that I ever did -

Higher fines for traffic offences? So people are more careful? Not sure about this one but when times are tough, you can't afford to pay any stupid fines and thus might drive more carefully?

More education? The government is constantly bombarding us with messages about safe driving - some of it must sink in!

I don't think that one particular aspect has done it - more various factors combined. I do think that safer cars are a large factor - people will always crash though.

Anyway - that's my 2 cents worth.

I would think that one of the biggest factor would have to be road conditions, years ago it would not be unheard of for ~15 people to die on the stretch of Hwy 1 from Calga to Ourimbah over a long weekend, that's now been replaced with divided motorway.

Just think, what ever the reason since 1978 when NSW peaked at 1384 deaths there's 1000s of people that were able to enjoy Christmas with their families.

1908 120 killed 7.64/100000 pop.
1972 1309 killed 28.95/100000 pop
2009 460 killed 6.48/100000 pop

http://roadsafety.transport.nsw.gov....08_to_2009.pdf


Martyn

I think the two greatest factors are mandatory fitting and wearing of seat belts and the big change in community attitude towards drink driving.

This latter required a major change to the social life of a nation. Before the breathalyser and particularly random testing, much of the driving population thought you had to be pretty drunk before you couldn't drive a motor car. Indeed, I once heard a Sergeant of police say just that in public. There were howls of outrage when a limit of 0.08 was applied. "That's not drunk. That's just 6 or 8 pots, barely a drink." Then came 0.05 which caused stunned disbelief "What, 4 pots of mid-strength. What bunch of wowsers think that is drunk."

A not long retired Inspector of Police who is a customer of mine,(he makes model engines) told me that when he was a young copper and the breathalyser was new it was common to test drivers who were well over 0.15. Stations would boast about their drunkest customer, 0.028 and 0.035 and still able to walk and talk, maybe not very well but enough to think they could drive. He says this is now rare and high level drink driving like this has almost disappeared except amongst the dedicated drunks of this world who will never change. I know that in my very social youth we would regularly sink 12 or 15 schooners, drive home, and think nothing of it.