Staff paper given by Lyn Martin to the 28th Australasian Transport Research Forum, 28–30 September 2005, Sofitel Wentworth Hotel, Sydney.

• External Accident Costs of Motor Vehicles Revisited
  
  sp_002_External_Accident_Costs_of_Motor_Vehicles_Revisited.pdf
  (822.47 KB)

This report provides estimates of the total cost to Australia of aviation related accidents and incidents that occurred in the financial year 2003–04. It also reports the cost per accident and the cost attributable to a fatality. It is an update of Cost of Civil Aviation Accidents and Incidents published by the Bureau of Transport Economics in 1998, which estimated costs for 1996.

• Cost of Aviation Accidents and Incidents
  
  report_113.pdf
  (1.02 MB)

This information sheet contains a historical overview of road death statistics in Australian from 1925, when road deaths were first recorded, to 2008.

• Road Deaths in Australia 1925–2008
  
  is_038.pdf
  (646.08 KB)

Road crashes impose large human and financial costs on society and substantial investments are made in infrastructure and safety programs to reduce road trauma. The cost of road crashes is important to the safety debate in Australia, and the unit values particularly for a fatality, injury or cost of a fatal crash are key inputs into policy development and cost-benefit analysis for safety programs and infrastructure projects. The social cost of road crashes in 2006 was an estimated $17.85 billion (1.7 per cent of GDP). This was a real decrease of 7.5 per cent compared to 1996 (2006 dollars). Estimated human losses were approximately $2.4 million per fatality, losses for a hospitalised injury were approximately $214 000 per injury (including disability-related costs), and losses for non-hospitalised injury were approximately $2200 per injury. These new estimates of the cost of road crashes update previous estimates for 1996 (Bureau of Transport Economics (BTE) Road crash costs in Australia, Report 102).

• Cost of road crashes in Australia 2006
  
  report_118.pdf
  (4.23 MB)

An earlier paper (Gargett et al 2009) showed, by very preliminary analysis of the Victorian road fatality rate, that a combination of increased seat belt wearing, random breath testing (RBT) and speed cameras explained almost all of the reduction in the Victorian road fatality rate since the late 1960s. The current analysis 1) extends the analysis to all states, 2) uses new estimates of vehicle kilometres travelled to derive an "exposure to death" variable and 3) includes actual measurements of state rates of seat belt wearing, as well as RBT and speed camera enforcement back to the inception of the programs in each state. The results of the analysis confirm the findings of the earlier paper seat belt wearing, RBT and speed cameras can explain almost all of the variation in fatality rates in all states since the late 1960s.

• Effectiveness of Measures to Reduce Road Fatality Rates
  
  is_039.pdf
  (1.92 MB)

This information sheet aims to provide some statistical snapshots of the characteristics of fatal road crashes in Australia in the last two decades, 1990 to 2009, and complements the road safety statistical summary produced by BITRE each year which presents other key time series. It includes some insights into the types of crashes prevalent during this period, the major factors and the road user groups most frequently involved.

• Fatal Road Crashes in Australia in the 1990s and 2000s: Crash Types and Major Factors
  
  is_041.pdf
  (1.97 MB)