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Pacific Highway is the state's most dangerous road: Ausrap Report


Pacific Highway is the state's most dangerous road: Ausrap Report

Author: Cie’Jai LeggettDate: 19 January 2012

Thursday 19 January 2012: The Pacific Highway accounted for over one-third (35%) of fatalities on NSW highways on the national network despite accounting for just 16% (611 kms) of the national network in NSW, according to the latest Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP) report.

Funded by the Australian Automobile Association, the NRMA and other state motoring clubs, AusRAP found that 128 people lost their lives on the Pacific Highway for the period 2005-09. Nearly 1,600 crashes that led to serious injury also occurred in the same period.

The report released by the NRMA today, tying in the with the United Nation’s Decade of Action for Road Safety, found that the percentage of NSW highways on the national network rated as a medium-high or high risk increased from 7 to fifteen per cent. This ran against the national average, which saw the risk level fall.

The AusRAP report for the period 2005-09 found:

  • Four people are killed and 90 people are seriously injured on Australia’s roads every day;
  • Road crashes cost the Australian community $74 million every day;

NRMA Motoring & Services President Wendy Machin said while this report did not account for upgrades on the Pacific Highway over the last two years recent events showed it was still a dangerous road in desperate need of improvement.

“The evidence is clear that where parts of the highway have been upgraded to dual carriageways crashes have dramatically reduced along these routes,” Ms Machin said.

“If funding commitments are made by both the NSW and Australian Governments to complete the duplication of the Pacific Highway, we know the goal of completion by 2016 can be achieved if the necessary planning and pre construction is made a priority.”

AusRAP works in partnership with government and nongovernment organisations to:

  • inspect national and state highways and develop Star Ratings and Safer Roads Investment Plans;
  • track road safety performance through risk maps so that funding agencies can assess the benefits of their investments; and
  • explain the benefits of safer road infrastructure to the community by describing why some roads are safer than others.

AusRAP analyses crash and traffic volume data over two five-year periods (2000-04 and 2005-09) and is based on the European equivalent, EuroRAP, which produces maps showing the risk of road crashes that cause deaths and life-threatening injuries and rates roads for safety.

 

*Individual risk rating is a measure of the number of casualty crashes per year per 100 million vehicle kilometers travelled. There are five ratings: low, low/medium, medium, medium/high and high.

Report available at: http://www.mynrma.com.au/about/reports-brochures-research.htm

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