Road toll falls for first time in 39 months but sits 19.7% above 2021

Australia’s rolling 12-month road toll has fallen against the previous corresponding period for the first time in 39 months, with 1,313 deaths recorded in the year to 31 August, down 1.1% or 14 lives.

The total remains 19.7% above where it sat in January 2021, when federal, state and territory governments adopted the National Road Safety Strategy 2021-30 with the aim of halving the toll by 2030.

The rolling total is also unchanged on seven months ago. AutoTalk reported 1,313 deaths for the 12 months to 31 January 2026, which the Australian Automobile Association then described as a 0.7% rise and a 32nd consecutive monthly increase. The direction has reversed because the comparison base is higher, not because the number has moved.

“Any reduction in road deaths is welcome, and 14 fewer lives lost means 14 families spared unimaginable grief, but the road toll remains unacceptably high,” AAA managing director Michael Bradley says.

“States and territories are implementing very different approaches to both longstanding and emerging road safety issues without providing evidence of their relative effectiveness. Australia’s disjointed approach to road trauma management must change.”

The national fatality rate was 4.7 deaths per 100,000 residents, down from 4.8. The Northern Territory again recorded the highest rate at 12.7, though that is down from 15.9, followed by Western Australia on 6.5 and Tasmania on 6.0, down from 7.1.

Queensland and Western Australia were unchanged. Two jurisdictions went the other way. South Australia rose to 5.5 from 4.7, and the ACT more than doubled to 3.5 from 1.7, although it remains the lowest rate in the country. New South Wales eased to 4.0 and Victoria to 3.6.

The AAA is again pressing the Commonwealth to act on its November 2024 commitment to a data-driven approach to road trauma, a reform that tied federal road funding to state and territory safety data reporting.

Twenty-two months on, the association says no analysis has been released of how effective interventions have been against drug and alcohol use, seat belt and helmet compliance, speeding, fatigue or distraction.

Of the strategy’s 23 performance indicators, only four can be tracked beyond 2024.