This report looks at the injury, both fatal and non-fatal, of Indigenous persons in the Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland due to transport accidents in the five-year period 1999–00 to 2003–04. Sixty per cent of the Indigenous population of Australia and 38% of the total Australian population reside in these four jurisdictions. The main findings of the report are that: Accidents involving road vehicles accounted for 99% of transport-related injury to Indigenous persons in this period. On a population basis, Indigenous persons had more than twice the rate of fatal injury and 1.3 times the rate of serious injury due to transport accidents compared with non-Indigenous persons. More than half of both Indigenous persons (52%) and non-Indigenous persons (55%) fatally injured were car occupants. However, 35% of Indigenous persons were pedestrians compared with 13% of non-Indigenous persons and 3% of Indigenous persons were motorcyclists compared with 13% of non-Indigenous persons. Among the seriously injured, 47% of Indigenous persons were car occupants compared with 34% of non-Indigenous persons, 17% of Indigenous persons were pedestrians compared with 7% of non-Indigenous persons and 8% of Indigenous persons were motorcyclists compared with 24% of non-Indigenous persons. Rates of fatal and serious injury for males, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, were higher than for females. Fatal injury rates, on an age-specific population basis, for non-Indigenous males and females were highest for the 15–19 and 20–24 year age groups, declining thereafter until the 60+ age groups. For Indigenous males and females, on the other hand, fatal injury rates rose in early adulthood and remained elevated through middle age. Serious injury rates for Indigenous males and females were fairly similar to corresponding non-Indigenous rates over the age band from 5–29 years and above age 60 (women) or 65 years (men) but Indigenous people had a substantially higher serious injury rate in infancy and in the age bands from 30–59 years. The proportion of Indigenous persons among fatal injury cases rose from 3% in major cities to 22% in remote areas and 62% in very remote areas. The proportion of Indigenous persons among serious injury cases rose from 2% in major cities to 13% in remote areas and 38% in very remote areas. (Author/publisher)
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