BITRE report notes statistics in relation to strong rise in registration
The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) has released its in-depth Road trauma involving heavy vehicles 2016 statistical summary.
Amid the concern about the simple numbers of fatalities and fatal crashes, which has garnered much comment regarding a recent rise, there is some solace for the industry.
“Over the decade to 2016, national rates of fatal-crashes-involving-heavy-vehicles per registration have fallen substantially,” the report states.
“For articulated truck involved crashes the reduction was 50.2 per cent, for fatal crashes involving heavy rigid trucks the reduction was 11.9 per cent and for bus involved fatal crashes the rate declined by 26.1 per cent.
“Over the last 25 years, counts of fatal crashes involving articulated trucks have decreased by 39.7 per cent.
“By jurisdiction, the reductions range from 0.0 per cent for Queensland to 64.1 per cent for New South Wales.
“During this time however, registrations have increased by 44 per cent (New South Wales) and 134 per cent (Queensland).”
BITRE also has details for serious injuries.
Here, about 1,700 people are hospitalised from crashes involving heavy vehicles each year – 5 per cent of all road traffic crash hospitalised injuries.
This estimate is unchanged for the last three years of available data – 2012-13 to 2014-15.
In 2016, there were 169 fatal crashes involved heavy trucks, both articulated or rigid trucks, a fall of four on 2015.
Over the last decade, the annual number of such crashes decreased at an average estimated trend of 2.7 per cent per year
Last year, those crashes claimed 213 lives, the same number as 2015.
Of this total, 50.2 per cent occurred in crashes involving an articulated truck, down compared to 2015), 42.7 per cent involved a heavy rigid truck, up from 2015.
There were 190 fatalities, a fall of three on 2015.
Over the last decade, the annual number of fatalities in crashes involving a heavy truck has decreased at an average estimated trend of 3 per cent per year.
Over the last 10 years, annual deaths from crashes involving heavy vehicles decreased by 25.3 per cent.
The estimated trend over the decade is a reduction of 3 per cent per year.
The full report can be found here.