Australia’s road toll hits 12-year high as pedestrian and cyclist fatalities rise
Australia’s road toll hits 12-year high as pedestrian and cyclist fatalities rise
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Government figures show 1,300 people died on the roads last year in a worsening trend not seen since the 1960s. Australia’s roads are getting deadlier, as a four-year period of surging fatalities marks a trend of increasing danger not recorded since the 1960s, before seatbelts were compulsory.
![[RACQ graphic showing examples of typical design features on different star-rated sections of Queensland’s Bruce Highway]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f694024d489429a444e6b82c1cea1d63089346c7/5_0_1348_762/master/1348.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Annual road fatality data collated by the federal government’s Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE) shows that 1,300 people died on Australian roads in 2024, up from 1,258 in 2023. A sharp spike in fatalities towards the end of the year, with 359 people dying in the three months to the end of December, confirmed 2024 as the deadliest year for Australian roads since 2012, when the figure was also 1,300.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email. Last year’s road toll was 18.5% higher than 2021, when a 10-year plan to halve road deaths was introduced. The Australian Automobile Association (AAA) has called on the Albanese government to force states to produce data about the safety scores of an individual road if they want federal funding to improve it.
The annual data also revealed that while driver and passenger deaths slightly decreased in 2024 compared to the previous year, roads became far more deadly for other users. Pedestrian deaths rose from 156 in 2023 to 167 in 2024, a 7.1% increase, while cyclist deaths jumped from 34 in 2023 to 38 in 2024, an 11.8% increase.
