Australia's 2024 road toll the deadliest in over a decade

More road users were killed in Australia in 2024 than in any other year for over a decade, but that may change if a new federal government-funded initiative can provide crucial insights into the causes of road deaths.

Australia’s road toll reached 1300 deaths in 2024, making it the deadliest year since 2012 and the fourth straight year in which fatalities increased.

An identical number of road users were killed in 2012, and though the figure declined in subsequent years, the toll has risen every year since 2021.

The 1300 road deaths in 2024 represented an increase of 3.3 per cent on the year prior, and a dramatic uptick from the recent low of 1097 fatalities in 2020, when most Australians were locked down due to COVID-related restrictions.

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The tragic result capped off a year in which another horrific road toll figure was recorded, with 1310 people dying on Australian roads in the 12-month period ending June 30, 2024, making it the deadliest year-long period since the end of November 2012.

Four out of the eight Australian states and territories – Queensland, Western Australia, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory – recorded an increase in road fatalities in 2024, while New South Wales remained static.

The greatest percentage increase occurred in the ACT, where 11 fatalities in the nation’s capital represented a 175 per cent increase on the four road deaths recorded in 2023.

South Australia saw the largest year-on-year decrease of 22 per cent, with 26 fewer deaths.

While new vehicles are becoming increasingly safer, a new Australian Government-funded road safety initiative is set to provide crucial insights that could finally help to reduce the road toll.

In November, the Australian Government announced it had reached a funding agreement with every state and territory to share critical traffic collision data, which the commonwealth will put towards influencing transport policies and funding through the Road Safety Program.

The Road Safety Data Hub website has already gone live, and is available not only to those at government level but also the wider public, providing transparency around the trauma on Australian roads.

The Road Safety Data Hub was announced in May 2024, prior to the 2024-25 Federal Budget, as a part of the National Partnership Agreement on Land Transport Infrastructure Projects, and is the recipient of a $21.2 million investment.

Michael Bradley, managing director of the Australian Automobile Association – the peak body for the nation’s motoring clubs – said the tragic road toll was proof that the existing approach to road safety wasn’t enough, echoing previous support for the upcoming Road Safety Program.

“It is clear current road safety approaches are inadequate and that more action is required to save lives,” Mr Bradley said.

“We must use data and evidence about crashes, the state of our roads and the effectiveness of police traffic enforcement to establish what is going wrong on our roads and create more effective interventions.

“This critical data must be embedded into the road funding allocation process so investment can be prioritised to our most dangerous roads.

“Australia’s rising road toll underscores the importance of using road condition data to direct road funding, and to prevent the politicisation of scarce public funds.”

Australia’s federal, state and territory governments agreed to the 10‑year National Road Safety Strategy in 2021, which has five main targets to reach by 2030:

• Reducing road deaths by 50 per cent from a 2018–2020 baseline
• Reducing serious injuries by 30 per cent from a 2018–2020 baseline
• Zero road deaths of children aged seven years and under
• Zero road deaths in city CBD areas
• Zero road deaths on all national highways and on high-speed roads covering 80 per cent of travel across the network

Australia is currently not on track to meet any of these targets.

A further breakdown of the 2024 road toll is available below, based on the Australian Road Deaths Database.

Deaths by age group

Deaths by posted speed limit

Deaths by road user type

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