2007 Road Toll statistics

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

I doubt people are dying from accidents at 2kph in traffic congestion, i think you've pointed out some of the real reasons.

No, but i bet there are a lot dying trying to get to the front of the line before it gets to 2k/hr, because they know the further up the line the quicker the trip will be.

Then you get the guy who is prepared to cross the solid line to overtake the slower traffic and hitting head on fast moving traffic heading away from the congestion.

Hey it's all a theory but one thing i can gaurantee, if we all left our cars at home one day and walked to work how many people would die on that day in road accidents.

[Captain Stubing]

It's funny (in a way) that this morning I read the Qld stats as 358 died this year, but it mentioned 1973 (I think) as being a highpoint for fatalities at around 650-ish.

I just went back to the QldPol site, and can't find that reference, now. I can see the same media releases I read from this morning, but it seems the road toll reference has been deleted.

I was wondering what happened in the early 70's to increase the road toll? I'm not sure why they deleted that info?

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by swanny

I was wondering what happened in the early 70's to increase the road toll? I'm not sure why they deleted that info?

Bloody supercar XYHO's

Oops, i meant Musclecars....j/k

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by KJLynx

Seen or heard (cant remember) a survey the other day where 60% of the people surveyed said they drove or have driven under the influence of drugs. Bit of a worrying statistic if true.

Interesting point.
I have a mate who has been a regular drug user/driver for 20yrs.
3yrs ago he killed a guy in a head on collision where he crossed to the wrong side of a country road in a light truck causing a very nasty crash.
At the time he was unable to get his drug of choice and therefore gave a negative reading when tested in the hour after the incident.

You know what he was doing when he crossed the line......reaching for a cigarette lighter to light his smoke.

Hands up those who have driven and smoked a cigarette or taken their eyes off the road for a split second.

I'm sure there are lots of stories of drug/alcohol/speed related accidents but there would be equal amount of concentration related accidents which are called that, accidents.
Not many people go out and deliberately take anothers life with a motor vehicle but when the possibility is there it can happen.

[Captain Stubing]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

Bloody supercar XYHO's

Oops, i meant Musclecars....j/k

That's the thing that caught my mind, but I couldn't back it up with facts or statistics.

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by swanny

That's the thing that caught my mind, but I couldn't back it up with facts or statistics.

Nah, that was a bit tongue in cheek.
I wouldn't have a clue why the early 70's was a bad time on our roads, i cant back my comment up with facts or numbers, i prefer to use common sense and i would take a guess and say that the influx of V8 powered cars during the late 60's early70's that had filtered through to everyday purchasers would possibly have something to do with it.
Until the penny dropped in the early 70's road deaths may not have been as widely publicised and therefore the education may not have been there but post supercar scare greater emphasis may have been put into practice
As Norm said earlier, it's hard to get involved in a fatal at low speeds say whilst driving a FX Holden but in a 170mph V8 supercar the opportunity to get it all wrong is greatly increased.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by Walkinshaw

Oh god. You have a position waiting for you in the pedestrian council!

What I meant by that is there are 18yo's that have some POS VN/EA (or a decent jap car with balls) where they have put the go fast bits on the car for that traffic light GP. Yet the tyres will still be rubbish, the breaks aren't suitible enough, or they've buggered the already tired suspension by lowering the car without replacing the shocks and they think they have god by the balls. These cars aren't exactly the safest thing on the road so when they hit a tree or pole the occupants dont fair too well (this is what I see happening).

[sleekism]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

When i was 18 ALL my friends got their licence, i don't know anyone who didnt either have their licence or licence and a car by the time they were just past 18.... the reason you see more P Plates now than years gone by is because you have to display them for allot longer, we only had to display them for 12 months...
There are more cars on the roads now because we have an ageing population, the average age is rising... these cars are driven by older people who are making up a greater % of drivers now than 20 years ago
There are most likely either less or if you factor in mild population growth roughly the same amount of 18-25 yo's on the road now than there was 20 years ago, the stats show this.
Check out what the graph is showing, its quite a dramatic change over the past 20 years.

Bloody spot on!


I think what it is an important consideration is the EXPONENTIAL increase in trucks on the road. There are quite a good number of good truckies on the road but also some real shockers.

I have had had semis flying at me at a 100kays on the wrong side of the road in the mountains. Just the other day it was raining and a truck came flying around the corner in the wet with his trailer sliding on the wrong side of the road causing me to have to drive off the road which did not sound good hitting the table drain.

The three biggest troubles I've had:

1)Inattentive old people
2)Inattentive SUV drivers
3)Psycho truckers

Haven't had much trouble with other p platers. Don't know how the cities are.

[4Vman]

Originally Posted by sleekism

The three biggest troubles I've had:

1)Inattentive old people
2)Inattentive SUV drivers
3)Psycho truckers

Haven't had much trouble with other p platers. Don't know how the cities are.

Its pretty much the opposite in the city where the vast majority of the population lives!

[bingoTE50]

[QUOTE=BENT_8]Nah, that was a bit tongue in cheek.
I wouldn't have a clue why the early 70's was a bad time on our roads, i cant back my comment up with facts or numbers, i prefer to use common sense and i would take a guess and say that the influx of V8 powered cars during the late 60's early70's that had filtered through to everyday purchasers would possibly have something to do with it.

In the 70's a lot of people were driving 60's and some 50's cars around that not all had seatbelts and it wasn,t policed. No boozebuses , and you were only breathtested if you had an accident . You could do 75mph in a 1200 beetle,EJ,Simca,Humber,hillman,Morris major,Zepher ,95 in a EH ,etc, but try and do emergency stop, or quick change of direction , compared to the vehicles today you had no chance. Drum brakes , no swaybars , crossply tyres, and yes v8's.
So really with the modern car of today , there is not a lot of excuses.

As they teach you in Advanced Driving courses , cars do not lose control ,drivers do !!!

[Keepleft]

More to all that Bingo; - The 70's 'toll' was internationally high - and has consistently fallen despite higher numbers on license, increased registration and ever improving road networks, with only occasional national or state abberation, year by year, throughout the western world at pretty much the same pace.

Australian 'experts' like to take much credit domestically for all this, but really most of the improvement has more to do with improved technical design and construction administered requirement, always an ongoing process.

[troppo]

Just to put this in perspective, the national road toll for 2007 is approx 1,500 people. How much effort and policing is going into saving those 1500 lives compared to say, smoking related deaths (19,019 in '98 - http://www.quit.org.au/article.asp?ContentID=7484 ) or 2003 (15,511 nationally, 6,507 in NSW alone - http://www.cancercouncil.com.au/edit...asp?pageid=371)
Overall, this effort is huge for such a small proprtion of the population...

Deaths from External causes include those from accidents, poisonings and violence. In 2005, External causes accounted for 8,015 deaths, or 6.1% of all registered deaths.

Source:http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@....2568A9001393C9
A fraction of 6% then. In fact, accidents (4,844 - 2004) only just outranks diabetes related deaths (3,422) and is below chronic respiratory failure (asthma, bronchitis and emphysema @ 5,573- above source)

Anyone else think motorists are unfairly targetted?

[fmc351]

So has the NT responded yet?

I suppose it probably takes a few years to see the benefits. /sarcasm

[dave289]

1500 dead.thats what happens when you give every tom,dick and harry a license to drive even though they do not desrve one and are completly useless.i see these drivers on the road everyday.dopes that should not have one.and i have to drive my car on the roads and highway with my kid with some of these morons that have no idea.these are not bus passes but yet evrybody seems to get one ,no wonder people are dying.

[russellw]

Statistical data is available to show fatality data against kilometres travelled along with a number of other more valid measures and I have uploaded a few of these HERE.

Cheers
Russ

[troppo]

Originally Posted by fmc351

So has the NT responded yet?

I suppose it probably takes a few years to see the benefits. /sarcasm

Oddly enough, that's exactly the line being pushed...

And just to clarify my earlier post. The 6% is actually all accidents, not just road fatalities. 1500 works out closer to 1/3 of that 6%, or 2% of deaths.

Another intersting figure being quoted on the skin cancer ads is 400,000 Aussies being diagnosed each year. Where's the Government's war on that?

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by russellw

Statistical data is available to show fatality data against kilometres travelled along with a number of other more valid measures and I have uploaded a few of these HERE.

Cheers
Russ

Nice one Russ.
Unfortunately these stats work for both sides of the 'speed camera/speed kills' argument.

The Pollies will say "look, our speed cameras are working. Here's proof"

Whilst we say " The road toll is in the basement so why all the speed cameras'

[sarrge2001]

A story regarding this was in the Adelaide Advertiser today - apparently pedestrian deaths are increasing here and good old Mr Scruby is demanding that the speed limit be reduced to 40kmh in built up areas.... :

Is anyone surprised??.......nah.....didn't think so.

[broken_suave]

Originally Posted by troppo

Oddly enough, that's exactly the line being pushed...

And just to clarify my earlier post. The 6% is actually all accidents, not just road fatalities. 1500 works out closer to 1/3 of that 6%, or 2% of deaths.

Another intersting figure being quoted on the skin cancer ads is 400,000 Aussies being diagnosed each year. Where's the Government's war on that?

I know what you mean, but its difficult to police peoples visits to the beach.
Its Illegal to drive under the influence, to drive faster than the posted speed limit etc, but you cant ban people from going to the beach, going fishing, playing sport, etc.

Its just easier to fight the battle of road deaths, than it is to fight the battle of skin cancer.

[russellw]

Scarily, a bit of a deeper look through the statistics shows some surprising numbers.

Taking 2005 as an example there were 108 fatalities in the under 16 age group which is a tragedy in anyones book.

What is worse is that 5 of these (4.62 %) were drivers including 1 in the 0-4 age group.
28 (25.92 %) of these were cyclists or pedestrians while the remainder were passengers in cars or motorcyclists (3).

Pedestrian deaths (for that year) were then fairly consistently spread across the remaining age group (17-25 / 26-39 / 40-59 / 60-69 and 70+) with an average of 28 males and 10 females in each group except the 70+ which is over represented and the only pedestrian group where more women are killed than men. Indeed the only other group to see women exceed men is 70+ passenger fatalities where there are 4 times the number of female fatalities (40 to 9 in 2005).

I shall do a 10 year analysis of the age group data and see what we come up with.

Cheers
Russ

[russellw]

The age based data for the last 17 years is now up in the Tech area and can be found HERE.

Cheers
Russ

[4Vman]

Thans Russ, its a good read.

[troppo]

Some very interesting figures there Russ, thanks for that.

Another set of stats I'd be interested in would be the ratio of km's driven by international and interstate tourists versus NT residents and the associated fatality data for the NT. I'd reckon that would go a long way to explaining the NT's above average fatality per capita figure.

I also have a hunch our pedestrian death per capita percentage would also be above average. The third anomoly would be large numbers of deaths involving single vehicle accidents. One of those account for 6 or 7 of the 57 NT deaths this year. I can't remeber if there were 7 or 8 in the vehicle, what I do remember is all were drunk, none had a seatbelt, the driver was the only survivor, and speed was not considered a factor.

Another damning stat for the NT might be how many of those 57 fatalities occured in areas which were previously designated as open roads. And how many of those were actually exceeding the new 130 km/h limit. I suspect a good number happened right here in town where speed limits already applied. If that's true then anyone with half a brain would expect that speed limits on the highway won't have any effect at all on town accident stats.

[[Tonko]]

Originally Posted by vztrt

What I meant by that is there are 18yo's that have some POS VN/EA (or a decent jap car with balls) where they have put the go fast bits on the car for that traffic light GP. Yet the tyres will still be rubbish, the breaks aren't suitible enough, or they've buggered the already tired suspension by lowering the car without replacing the shocks and they think they have god by the balls. These cars aren't exactly the safest thing on the road so when they hit a tree or pole the occupants dont fair too well (this is what I see happening).

Why just single out 18 y.o's?
You are making ALOT of assumptions there...
Truth be told, i see alot more fully licensed drivers doing stupid stuff.

[russellw]

The third installment of the data analysis is up now which looks at the speed zones, day of the week and time of day that accidents occur as well as the the numbers of incidents.

The results can be found HERE

Cheers
Russ

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by [Tonko]

Why just single out 18 y.o's?
You are making ALOT of assumptions there...
Truth be told, i see alot more fully licensed drivers doing stupid stuff.

Because I'm trying to show that these young drivers dont know how to control a car, but in their minds they're all race car drivers. Added to the fact that they're in cars with pathetic handling poor brakes and clapped out suspension. If you read through the thread more young people died in Vic then last yr. You can call what I'm saying assumptions but this is what I'm seeing out on the road. Mind you there are plenty of new drivers that are sensible, but the ones who think they know it all are a big danger on the roads.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by vztrt

These cars aren't exactly the safest thing on the road so when they hit a tree or pole the occupants dont fair too well (this is what I see happening).

ROFL. When you hit a tree with any car, the car will always come off second best.

[troppo]

I think what he's getting at is that the chances of hitting the tree in the first place increase as things like brakes and suspensions wear out and that replacing these things aren't as high a priority as they should be among younger drivers.

Take me for example, when I was an apprentice I got a nice neat HT kingswood with a modded 307 and everything else stock, right down to wheels. I spent money on improving the motor further. Within 12 months, it was on it's roof with the suspsension and dirt roads being significant factors. If I was to buy the same car today, brakes, suspension and diff (it had a banjo behind the powerglide) would get done before any more engine work.

Experience is a harsh teacher, but there is no substitute for it.

[russellw]

The latest data review is up now - this one covering data for articulated trucks and buses and their involvement in fatal accidents.

Cheers
Russ

[russellw]

I said in the 3rd installment that it would be nice to compare fatalities in each speed zone with the percentage of use. That didn't end up being quite feasible but the data can be matched against rural and urban use for each State so I have updated the data set to reflect that.

The results can be found HERE


Cheers
Russ