Road Safety
The department's road safety activities include undertaking research projects to improve national road safety, research and statistical analysis, coordination of the National Road Safety Strategy and Action Plan, and publication of road fatality statistics.
Road crashes are a huge cause of human trauma. Since record keeping commenced in 1925, there have been over 169,000 road fatalities in Australia. In addition to the burden of personal suffering, the monetary cost of crashes is in the order of $15 billion per annum (1996 data).
From 1970 until 2002 the fatality rate dropped from 30.4 to 8.8 deaths per 100,000 population. This reduction has been achieved in spite of a huge increase in motor vehicle use. From 1970 to 2002, the fatality rate per 10,000 registered vehicles has dropped from 8.0 to 1.4. In terms of 100 million vehicle-kilometres travelled the fatality rate has dropped from 4.4 in 1970 to 1.0 in 2000.
This page provides links to information addressing road safety. Please follow the links below for details on the topic of interest.
keys2drive Help for Learner Drivers and Parents
The Government's 2008-09 Budget will deliver $17 million over five years to fund an important and innovative road safety initiative - keys2drive - which will provide more than 20,000 free driving lessons to learner drivers and their parents.
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The Prime Minister announced on the 19 September 2007 that the Australian Government will provide $40 million over the next four years for a new safety initiative for school buses.
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Follow this link to view all road safety education material, research and analysis reports, statistical information and brochures.
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The department produces a range of statistical information relating to Australian road fatalities. Links to these reports can be found on this page.
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The Strategy provides a framework which complements the road safety strategies of individual state, territory and local governments. The target of the strategy is to reduce the annual number of road fatalities.
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The department encourages collaborative efforts around Australia to improve road safety for Indigenous Australians.
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The department commissions and conducts research and analysis on a wide a range of road safety topics. The results are published and disseminated widely as research and analysis reports.
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The department has worked with organisations within Australia and around the world to conduct research on ways to improve the safety of novice drivers.
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This link takes you to a list of Bulletins, Reports and detailed Vehicle Safety information.