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The latest road toll figures are out and clearly show that speed cameras and other passive control methods are unlikely to have an impact on road toll reductions.
From June 2023 to May 2024, 1,303 people died on Australian roads – an increase of more than 10 per cent on the equivalent period before it.
It comes amid some of the biggest revenue collected by some states from speeding tickets and mobile phones.
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Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research economic data released today revealed 1,303 people died on Australian roads in the 12 months leading to May 31, 2024, up from 1,180 the previous year.
This 10.4 percent increase shows that existing road safety measures, including speed cameras, are not adequately addressing the problem.
Notably, road deaths increased dramatically in NSW (32.9 per cent) and the Northern Territory (72.4 per cent).
Despite the widespread use of speed cameras in these regions, there has been a significant increase in fatalities, suggesting that other factors may be more critical to ensuring road safety.
In individual states, the revenue generated by traffic cameras continues to climb to new heights, while data shows no real effect on reducing traffic injuries.
In Queensland, the Camera Detected Offenses Program (CDOP) brought in $465.8 million in revenue last financial year, an increase of nearly 70 per cent on the $274.5 million collected in 2021-22.
This is expected to grow to over $500 million in the current financial year. The huge jump in revenue comes despite an extra 14 deaths on Queensland’s roads, a five per cent increase on last year.
In Victoria, the state government is expected to earn almost $1 billion in fines this financial year, making it the most heavily policed state in the country.
Despite the huge amount of fines, like Queensland, the southern state recorded 14 more deaths in the past 12 months than the previous year, suggesting that further enforcement and fines have had no real effect on reducing road tolls.
Both states have also deployed a range of mobile phone detection cameras with fines exceeding $1000 in Queensland, none of which appear to have had a positive impact on reducing road charges.
These toll data individually may not appear to be statistically significant. However, they come on the back of 2022-2023 being the worst year on record with 1,253 people killed across the country; the highest since 2017-2018 (before COVID), suggesting an upward trend.
By 2022, Australia had a road toll of 4.5 per 100,000 people per year, or 4.9 deaths per approximately 1 billion vehicle kilometres.
Germany – which places a heavy emphasis on speed and much higher average speed limits – reached 3.7 deaths per 100,000 people and 4.2 per approximately 1 billion vehicle kilometers.
The federal government allocates about $10 billion a year to fund state transportation infrastructure, but road deaths continue to rise.
The question remains, what are taxpayers funding?
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