A new way of looking at road safety numbers

5 May 2014

The State of Victoria in Australia has adopted a new approach to engaging public support to achieve its vision of Zero deaths and serious injuries on the state’s roads. It will focus on serious injuries and their consequences of the long term effects.

The Victorian Coalition Government’s Ministerial Road Safety Council is leading the global effort to reduce serious injuries with an Australian-first road safety leadership event held in Melbourne .

The two day Towards Zero Road Safety Leadership Symposium, supported by Victoria’s road safety partners TAC, VicRoads, Victoria Police and Department of Justice, heard how coordinated community action would be needed to stop the trend of more than 5,500 people being injured on Victoria’s roads each year.
 

Its newly launched website says:

• When we talk about the road toll we often think of road fatalities only. But serious injuries are of grave concern and there is an urgent need to reduce them.
• About 5500 people are injured each year on Victoria’s roads. This includes up to 20 cases of quadriplegia and paraplegia and 100 catastrophic brain injuries every year. These people will require treatment and care, and in some cases they will need that care around the clock for their entire lifetime. This is the hidden trauma that is often forgotten in the road toll.
• While we are seeing a reduction in road deaths each year, the same is not true for serious injuries. This is a worldwide problem, with serious injury rates now the focus of road safety work in Sweden, the Netherlands and other leading road safety countries.