I was just reviewing the road toll statistics for Australia again when it hit me like a brick that I had been missing something very obvious every time I had looked in the past.
The graph is at
www.roadsense.com.au and is right near the top.
At first glance it shows what is intended, that since cameras have been introduced the reduction in the toll has basically flattened out. But I missed something a little more concerning - the sheer numbers of deaths we are talking about.
In 1978 there were around 3,500 deaths on Australian roads. This number dropped over the following 14 years to around 2,000 in 1992 or a 43% drop.
In 2002 the number of road deaths was only down by another 250 or 12.5% down on the 1992 figures. Had the same decline continued from 1992 (at 34% - 10 years not 14) the road toll would be at around 1,320 (using the 1992 figures as a start point). This means that in 2002 at least 430 people died who would still be living if the correct approach to road safety had continued/been improved.
Since the graph is basically flat since 1992 that means that around 4,000 people have died in the last 10 years who might be alive today.
Obviously the reason for this reduction in the decline of road deaths cannot be placed 100% on speed cameras but I am sure that had the old policies continued unchanged a lot more people would still be alive today.
These damn killers need to be removed from the roads
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