Australia’s road toll has risen 18.2 per cent since the current National Road Safety Strategy began in 2021, according to new analysis from the Australian Automobile Association (AAA), prompting calls for a fundamental shift in how serious crashes are investigated.
The AAA’s latest Benchmarking the Progress of the National Road Safety Strategy (2021-30) report shows that instead of moving toward the Strategy’s goal of halving road deaths by 2030, fatalities have continued to trend upwards. In the 12 months to 30 September 2025, road deaths increased by 6.8 percent.
AAA Managing Director Michael Bradley said the figures demonstrate that current approaches are failing to deliver the intended outcomes.
“While state police undertake the important work of apportioning blame for individual crashes, the data shows there is a need for investigations that identify system-wide causes of road trauma, and which can lead to their future prevention,” Mr Bradley said.
“With road deaths continuing to increase, a new approach is needed to identify causes of road trauma and recommend policy responses.”
Pedestrian deaths have risen sharply, increasing 23.4 per cent over the past year, with 206 pedestrians killed nationwide. Western Australia recorded a 93.8 per cent increase in pedestrian deaths, Queensland 56 per cent, South Australia 38.5 per cent, and Victoria 7.8 per cent.
The report also shows drivers accounted for almost half of all road deaths in the period, rising to 621 fatalities, an 11.3 percent increase. Most fatal crashes involved a single vehicle, with 681 such crashes recorded, representing 54.5 percent of all fatal crashes.
Call for National No-Blame Road Crash Investigations
The AAA is calling for the Commonwealth to expand the no-blame investigation powers currently used for aviation, rail and maritime incidents to include serious road crashes. The AAA argues that examining crashes for systemic contributing factors, rather than solely focusing on fault, would support better prevention strategies.
The AAA is urging the Commonwealth to expand the remit of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which currently conducts no-blame investigations into aviation, rail and maritime incidents. The group argues that applying a similar model to serious road crashes would allow for clearer identification of systemic risks and policy gaps.
The report notes that no state or territory is on track to meet the Strategy’s targets. Road deaths increased in six jurisdictions over the past year: Tasmania (20 per cent), New South Wales (14.4 per cent), the ACT (14.3 per cent), Queensland (12.9 per cent), Western Australia (7.8 per cent) and Victoria (1.4 per cent). South Australia was unchanged, and the Northern Territory recorded a decrease but still had the highest fatality rate per capita.
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