Shocking way we lost 1247 people last year
It’s Friday night and four young friends are out together celebrating Schoolies at the beachside town of Goolwa, south of Adelaide.
It should have been just another night but it turned into tragedy when one of the four, Charlie Stevens, was killed in an alleged hit-and-run crash.
Charlie was the son of South Australian Police Commissioner Grant Stevens and his death shocked the state and cast a fierce spotlight on the gruesome spike in road deaths that have pummelled South Australia across 2023.
But the state is not the only one grappling with a horror year on the roads, with some jurisdictions recording sharp increases in road deaths.
In early November, the regional Victorian town of Daylesford was changed forever when a BMW X5 mounted the kerb and crashed into the Royal Daylesford Hotel beer garden on a Sunday at 6pm, killing five people.
The loss of life has left police officers exhausted and calling on the public to “wake up and grow up” to stop the carnage.
The year 2023 proved to be deadly, with states like South Australia and Victoria recording substantial increases from road death tolls in 2022.
Altogether, the national road toll stood at 1247 as of October 2023, a 6 per cent increase on the 1171 fatalities recorded through to October 2022, according to the Australian government’s Office of Road Safety.
The National Road Safety Strategy has set a target of a 50 per cent reduction in fatalities by 2050 and a 30 per cent reduction in serious injuries.
Western Australia recorded 148 fatalities, a small decrease on the 152 recorded in 2022.
South Australia recorded 117 fatalities on the road, a dramatic 64 per cent spike from the 71 deaths recorded in 2022.
Speaking in August, South Australia Police Traffic Services Branch Superintendent Darren Fielke said the dramatic figures should serve as a “serious reality check”.
“The ripple effect of road trauma, whether it be life lost or a serious injury, should not be lost on anyone,” he said.
Victoria recorded 297 fatalities, a 23.8 per cent increase on the 240 deaths recorded in 2022. There has been a steady increase in deaths on Victorian roads. In 2020, the state recorded 210 fatalities, then 235 in 2021, 240 in 2022.
Tasmania bucked a general trend to stability to increases, recording a substantial 33 per cent fall in fatalities from 51 in 2022 to 34 in 2023.
NSW recorded 351 fatalities, a 25 per cent increase on the 281 fatalities recorded in 2022.
Though NSW’s numbers rose substantially in 2023, they are still below the figures recorded pre-Covid.
The ACT had a comparatively good year on the roads, recording just three deaths compared with 20 in 2022.
Queensland had a better year in numbers of fatalities, though its figures are still higher than the numbers recorded pre-Covid.
The state recorded 269 fatalities, a 4.9 per cent fall from the 283 deaths recorded in 2022. But the tally is still higher than in 2018 and 2019.
The Northern Territory also recorded a comparatively good year on the roads, with 31 deaths compared with 53 in 2022.