What is the impact of bad vehicle driving in the ACT?

At the 31 January 2024, there were an estimated 21.74 million registered motorised vehicles in Australia, up 2.7% on the previous January. There were 20.6 million vehicle licence holders in Australia as of 30 June 2024.

Registered vehicles in the ACT numbered 337,854 on 31 January 2024, up 1.9% from January 2023. There were 347,892 ACT licence holders as of 30 June 2024, also up 1.9% from the previous 12 months.

In 2024, 1,300 Australian died on our nation’s roads with 2024 being the deadliest year since 2012 and the fourth straight year in which fatalities increased. An identical number of road deaths occurred in 2012, and though the figure declined in subsequent years, the toll has risen every year since 2021. This is despite advancements in road safety technology and road infrastructure.

In the ACT there were eleven road deaths in 2024, four in 2023 and eighteen in 2022.

January 2025 was the worst opening month for road deaths on Australian roads since 2019. Data from the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics shows 114 road deaths in Australia (zero in the ACT) throughout January, 20.5 percent higher than the January average of the years 2020–2024.

As the TV advertisement says, there is no tolerable level of road deaths other than zero. Besides the financial cost, each road death is a terrible human cost in loss of life, and misery for family, friends, and colleagues.

To tackle this road toll, Australian governments have committed to Vision Zero, an ambitious goal of zero road deaths and serious injuries by 2050.

In 2021 the Australian Government and all state and territory governments agreed the National Road Safety Strategy 2021-30 (the National Strategy). It set the agenda for coordinated and planned government action to improve road safety this decade. The strategy set out Australia’s road safety objectives over the next decade and included key priorities for action and targets to reduce the annual number of fatalities by at least 50 per cent and serious injuries by at least 30 per cent by 2030.

The strategy takes a Safe System approach which recognises that all the elements of the road transport system work together to create a safe system, aiming to prevent crashes or make them more survivable and limit the severity of the injuries.

The ACT Government has its ACT Road Safety Strategy 2020-2025 with the goal of improved safety on our road network, a continued reduction in trauma and deaths, and the achievement of Vision Zero. Associated with the strategy is the ACT Road Safety Action Plan 2024-2025 which has four goals to tackle the road toll:

Goal 1: Reduce serious and fatal crashes.

Goal 2: Build a community that shares responsibility for road.

Goal 3: Change road user attitudes and behaviour through education and compliance activities.

Goal 4: Strengthen collaboration across Government and with stakeholders to improve road safety in the ACT.