Volatility to be expected in narrow and short-term focus, bureau says
The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) sees longer term trends and contextualisation as essential to a proper appreciation of fatal truck crash statistics.
It stance supports that of VicRoads, which pointed out that multiple factors can be at play in death-toll movements.
VicRoads had been responding to an ATN query on an against-trend stabilisation of the state’s fatal truck accident rate according to BITRE statistics.
“Counts of fatal crashes are volatile, particularly over short periods and for single jurisdictions,” a BITRE spokesperson says.
“BITRE agrees that contextual data assists in the understanding of crash trends.”
The spokesperson points to BITRE’s Road trauma involving heavy vehicles: crash statistics report released last July that provides crash rates by vehicle type standardised by billion vehicle-kilometres-travelled.
That measure showed that over the last decade, annual deaths from crashes involving a heavy vehicle including buses decreased 32.7 per cent, from 281 to 189.
The estimated trend is a reduction of 3.2 per cent per year.
“When standardised by the number of vehicle registrations over the last decade, the rates for articulated truck involvement and heavy rigid truck involvement show average declines of 6.8 per cent per annum and 4.1 per cent per annum respectively,” the report states.
Over the last decade, total annual deaths from fatal crashes involving a heavy vehicle decreased by 32.7 per cent. The estimated trend is an average reduction of 3.2 per cent per year
Tables of registrations and vehicle-kilometres-travelled by jurisdiction, which are available annually, are provided in the Appendices.
This publication will be updated each year, with the next due in March.
Although not aware of other specifically relevant publications, the spokesperson notes sources of qualitative analysis include National Transport Insurance (NTI), the accident commissions in each jurisdiction, road safety authorities, and research bodies attached to universities.