From the ABC:
NSW road toll falls dramatically
NSW has recorded its lowest annual road toll since the Second World War, as the number of people killed on the state's roads declined for a sixth straight year.
The 2008 road toll was 395, 40 fewer than last year, and 30 per cent lower than the 561 killed in 2002.
NSW Roads Minister Michael Daley said the toll was a 64-year-record, and the first time it had fallen below 400 since 1944.
"This is the sixth year in a row the road toll has gone down in NSW, which hasn't happened since records began 100 years ago," Mr Daley said.
"This is despite there being 15 times as many vehicles, 11 times as many licensed drivers and double the population on our roads since 1944.
"There will be 40 people today enjoying New Year's Day with their families who may not have otherwise have been able to do that if the road toll hadn't been reduced from last year."
The continual reduction in road deaths was a drastic turnaround since 1978, in which 1,384 people were killed during the days before random breath testing, he said.
More illustrative of the downturn is that the 2008 fatality rate was just 5.7 deaths per 100,000 people, the lowest since records began in 1908.
Well, they need to find out whatever was done to accomplish this, and keep doing it!!
ReplyDeleteWell it certainly hasn't been the quality of the roads!I think a few changes like compulsory wearing of seat belts and random breath testing have been major steps forward. They brought in random drug tests last year and are expanding that, and I think that will be seen to be a major factor.It seems also that the message about fatigue is getting out there. A couple of years ago there was a big run on fatal accidents being caused by people doing really stupid things like driving for 18 hours straight without a break (that was one person, not shared driving).
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