Report names Australia's deadliest highways

[Jim Goose]

Queensland's Bruce Highway has been named as one of Australia's most dangerous stretches of major road in a new survey carried out by a leading motoring group.

The Australian Automobile Association (AAA) analysed the traffic, death and serious injury statistics for the 20,000 kilometres of national highways.

The study confirmed the reputation of the Bruce Highway - which snakes for 1,550 kilometres along the Queensland coast from Brisbane to the state's north - as a major danger spot for motorists.

It found the Bruce Highway saw the highest level of road trauma on the Queensland national highway network, accounting for 50 per cent of casualty crashes and 61 per cent of deaths from 2005 to 2009.

The report says the highway accounted for more than 17 per cent of deaths on the entire national network.

Others that rated poorly include stretches of the Great Western Highway in New South Wales, the Princes Highway East in Victoria, Western Australia's Great Eastern Highway, Tasmania's Midland Highway and the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory.

Much of the Bruce Highway was given a safety risk of medium-high or high.

But the AAA report says almost one in five highways across the country pose a high risk to drivers.

"[The Bruce Highway] is the most dangerous of the national highways in the country, and at about 40 deaths a year on average it is a serious issue the Government needs to step up and improve," RACQ spokesman Michael Roth said.

But the report showed highway deaths had decreased, with 1,170 people dying on national highways between 2005 and 2009 compared to 1,200 in the previous five years.

The report rates 23 per cent of highways as low risk, up from 15 per cent in the last report in 2007, and 17 per cent of highways as high risk, down from 23 per cent.

"Some progress has been achieved to improve the national highway network," AAA executive director Andrew McKellar said in a statement.

"Despite the improved results, it is important the community must not become complacent about road safety, with governments and motorists taking shared responsibility for their actions."

The AAA says smaller highways and links are over-represented in the statistics and they should be improved by installing barriers as well as tactile edge lines to alert drivers who stray off the road.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-1...ghways/3782590