Since the early 1970s — when nearly 400 people were killed and more than 4000 people seriously injured on South Australian roads — there has been a substantial decline in the number of casualties. This has occurred despite an increase in the number of people and vehicles on our roads. In recent years this improvement has flattened out. Now, relative to our population, South Australia has one of the highest fatality rates in the country — 15% worse than the national average. Clearly we have to do things differently and try innovative measures to lower the road toll. Australia’s National Road Safety Strategy 2001-2010 aims to dramatically reduce death and injury on Australian roads. The National Strategy has set the target of a 40% reduction in road fatalities by the end of 2010. Road safety improvements which can achieve this reduction will also reduce serious injuries. This will be a challenging target to reach but we believe it is achievable. According to the National Strategy, the reduction is most likely to come from the following measures: • Construction, upgrading and maintenance of our road systems to improve road conditions • Legislation, education and enforcement to improve road user behaviour • Improvements in vehicle design to aid drivers and protect occupants. The South Australian Government has established two Councils to assist it in reducing the road toll — a Road Safety Ministerial Council, which will set policies relating to road safety, and a Road Safety Advisory Council, which has developed the strategies contained in this document and which will monitor and evaluate their implementation. In April 2003 the Government released South Australia’s first published draft Transport Plan since 1968, outlining a series of directions to address transport challenges over the next fifteen years. Road safety is a fundamental challenge highlighted within the Plan and one higher-level initiative to address it is the development of a detailed strategy. The publication of this Road Safety Strategy is one of the next tier of plans and strategies. (Author/publisher)
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