Your Questions Answered: Why is Australia's road toll still rising?

With all the five-star safety-rated cars having been sold in Australia for years, especially more recently with active safety features meant to help drivers avoid crashing, why is the Australian road toll increasing instead of decreasing? – Ron

Answer: Hey Ron, for some, the whole thing can be explained by how the numbers are counted. Per capita, the road toll is 4.7 deaths per 100,000 population (12-month period to June 2026), a decrease from 6.9 in 2010. Or, if you like, down 0.1 from the 12-month period to June 2019.

If instead you count every road death as one too many, then the tally suggests a rising trend.

Even if you ignore the anomaly caused by the pandemic, the increase in the road toll is from 1196 deaths in the 12 months to June 2019 compared with the most recent figures of 1325 road deaths in the 12 months to June 2026.

Historically, the road toll has declined since 1970, mainly attributed to mandatory seat belt use since 1970 and maximum driver blood alcohol limits since the 1980s.

Better crashworthiness of cars, for example crumple zones and airbags, and their active safety systems, such as ABS brakes and stability control, have also helped reduce the road toll. Recent safety measures include increased penalties and surveillance of speed, seat belt and mobile phone use, increased testing for driver impairment (drug testing), and lower speed limits. For example, urban speed limits once universally 60km/h are now as low as 30km/h in some built-up areas. As you mention, there has also been much wider deployment of standard ADAS in newer cars.

Suggestions for why the road toll has increased are many. Firstly, there is data to suggest many more vehicles are sharing the road. Road Genius data shows the Australian car parc increased by 23.3 per cent in the 10 years from 2014 to 2024.

Newer overseas drivers are not used to local driving conditions, roads are in poorer condition due to weather events and a lack of resources to repair them, and there is the issue of driver distraction.

But let’s not forget vulnerable road users. Pedestrian and cyclist road deaths have also significantly increased.

Some suggest larger vehicles, such as SUVs and utes, and possibly greater uptake of walking and cycling in denser urban areas play a part there.

Some also argue that poor Advanced Driver Assistance System calibration and the heavy dependence on infotainment touchscreen controls present dangerous driver distractions of their own.

Not helping gain clarity on this last point is the fact the average age of cars in Australia, according to the latest 2024 data from Road Genius, is 11.2 years.

There are also some who argue that roadcraft, being able to control a vehicle well, is not being adequately tested when licences are granted, and that courtesy and patience on the road are also declining.

Safety bodies and legislators are faced with an incredibly difficult task in fixing all this, but one thing is certain: road safety and enforcement measures so far do not appear to be working well enough to achieve the Australian Government’s target of no more than 571 deaths by 2030.

I don’t visit petrol stations now I have bought an EV. So I don’t feel like I can check the tyres at a petrol station anymore without buying something. Even then, half of them are broken or seem to be inaccurate anyway. What options do I have to inflate my tyres at home? – Marie

Answer: Hi Marie, it’s great that you are checking tyre pressures, as many people unfortunately do not. It’s easy for a tyre to lose 2psi of pressure a week, although a poor seal or valve might be to blame. Five weeks later, your car is running tyres at dangerously low pressures.

Don’t do what I did, which was rely on a bicycle pump for checking tyres at home for far too long. While this analogue experience offers a good workout, it isn’t exactly a great incentive to pump up the tyres for most of us.

Many newer cars that don’t have a spare tyre come with a 12-volt tyre pump. You could use that, but it’s a bit fiddly unraveling the leads and is often glacially slow to pump up a tyre anyway.

Instead, what I suggest is spending less than $100 on a compact battery-powered air compressor. This type has no fiddly power lead, just a USB charging lead, an integrated tyre-pressure reading and will add 5–10psi to a tyre in a matter of seconds.

I am researching new medium SUVs online for our next family car. We have two toddlers and need a fair bit of boot space for prams and so on. All the car company websites tell you how many litres a boot holds, but I am not intending to carry a bladder filled with water, so that seems a bit useless. So how can we work out if all our stuff is going to fit without having to physically drag it to each and every car showroom? Aside from being a nuisance for us, I can’t imagine a dealer would be happy with us doing that. Do you have any suggestions? – Dianne

Answer: Hey Dianne, excellent question. The litre-capacity method is only really useful as a comparison between vehicles and won’t tell you much more than that. Even then, how that capacity is measured between manufacturers isn’t always the same.

I would suggest one of the many online guides would help, such as those here on carsales.

If you have the time, it would be worth taking the more bulky items, such as the pram and car seats, to trial-fit in at least one of your shortlisted SUVs. The dealer should not mind if you show you are serious. Allowing you to fit these items might get them a sale.

Also consider how long you intend to keep the vehicle. What your capacity needs are with toddlers will look very different if you’re planning to have more children or, if not, when your kids get older.

In other words, in only a few years you won’t need bulky items like a pram, a high chair or a portable cot, and your children would likely be forward-facing in their child seats, which introduces more compact seat options than a convertible rear- or forward-facing seat.

As another option, you might want to consider a smaller, more economical SUV that can carry the basic must-haves, like a pram in the boot, and invest in either a roof box or a tow bar and small trailer for any other bulky items needed for the annual family holiday trip.

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