Australian Road Fatalities On The Rise Despite Covid Lockdowns

The Australian road toll has climbed once again despite Covid lockdowns keeping large amounts of traffic off the roads.

Despite millions of people staying indoors as a result of the Covid pandemic, the road toll has increased to 1126 over the past 12 months to November.

This is a 1.4 percent increase from the previous year and follows various efforts and campaigns by the governments to decrease road fatalities.

Stay up-to-date on the latest news with The National Briefing - keeping you in the loop with the nation’s breaking news as it hits.

State by state numbers show a troubling increase in road fatalities particularly for the state of Queensland.

Queensland road tolls have increased by a massive 10.2 percent with 291 deaths, which is the largest number of fatalities across the state in five years and the largest number of all states over the past year.

Victoria follows closely behind QLD with a 6.5 percent increase to 230.

NSW has gone in the opposite direction, with a decrease in road fatalities of 8.6 percent to 266.

While road fatalities are increasing, the number of passenger deaths has decreased by 23 percent over a five-year period.

Motorcycle deaths have increased a whopping 16 percent to 219 following a substantial increase in motorcycle purchases since the beginning of the pandemic.

With the latest numbers reflecting troubling increases nationwide, Australian transport ministers have signed off on a new strategy which will aim to reduce the number of fatalities by 50 percent by 2030.

Stay up-to-date on the latest news with Your Morning Agenda - supported by a network of local journalists from all major Australian cities, ensuing timely and first hand insights on local stories:

Download LiSTNR and enjoy a new world of audio. All your favourite shows and stations in one library.