Crash Index – Decade of Despair: Why Queensland's Rising Crash Rate Demands Action Now

Article by Rachel Last : Senior Associate, Smith's Lawyers

This week, AAMI has released its 2024 Crash Index “A Decade of Driving Report” which examines ten years of claims data held with AAI Limited’s portfolio of insurers. The Report reveals the hot spots for crashes on our Queensland roads, the type of collisions which are most common, the most likely day of the week and time of day for road crashes, and the most common age of driver.?

Amongst the interesting revelations in the Report are the following:

• As of 2021, there were 2.5 million more registered vehicles on Australian roads when compared to 2014.
• 28% of motor vehicle accidents occur between 1pm and 4:30pm, likely attributed to school pick-up and end-of-the-workday trips.?
• For the past decade, Friday has been the worst time of the week for accidents.?
• Queensland drivers seem to be most safe over the weekend, with the least number of accidents occurring on Saturday and Sunday.
• The Bruce Highway at Gympie has remained in the top four of Queensland’s worst crash hotspots for the past decade.?
• A whopping 25% of Queensland road crashes are nose-to-tail collisions.?

It is no wonder that personal injury lawyers in Queensland are finding themselves busier than ever before, with statistics like those.?

With more vehicles on our roads and, in turn, more traffic crashes than ever before, the Report magnifies the need for more road safety awareness. Whilst there are already road safety awareness campaigns in place, such as Road Safety Week and Fatality Free Friday, what we instead see is that this important topic falls off the radar between one campaign and the next.?

We personal injury lawyers see firsthand the profound social, economic and emotional cost that road crashes have. I therefore consider us perfectly positioned to ensure road safety awareness stays in the spotlight. We need to be advocates for road safety awareness year-round.?

How, you ask??

By writing about these statistics, sharing reports such as this one, summarising relevant case law, sharing our client’s stories, getting the media involved. If the spotlight drifts, pull it back. If just one personal injury lawyer wrote about this issue on a weekly basis, perhaps we could see this topic stay front of mind and this would encourage greater vigilance on our roads.?

Personal injury lawyers have, historically, been referred to as “ambulance chasers”, when the reality is that this could not be further from the truth.? I think I speak for us all when I say we don’t want to see the number of motor vehicle accident claims continue to increase as it has done year on year. We want to see our roads safe, but to achieve this, we all need to step up and push to reduce road trauma.?

We can be the change, if we choose to be.