Australian road toll lowest for 15 years

Press, 21 January 1983, Page 7

Australian road toll lowest for 15 years

NZPA Canberra Australia had the lowest national road toll for 15 years last year, according to provisional figures given by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The A.B.S. figures show that last month also returned the lowest number of road fatalities for December since 1962. The national road toll for the year stood at 3251 compared with 3321 for 1981, the lowest figure since 1967 (3166). The figures, supplied by state and Federal police, are provisional and subject to revision. In December, 260 people were killed in 233 fatal road traffic accidents compared with 303 in 246 accidents for the same month in 1981. This was the lowest December tally since 252 deaths recorded in 1962. The December figures reflect a 60 per cent drop in road deaths in New South Wales over the hectic Christ-mas-New Year period after the introduction of random breath testing. A breakdown of road deaths for the year shows that New South Wales led with 1252, followed by Victoria (706), Queensland (603), South Australia (270), Western Australia 238), Tasmania (96), Northern Territory (60), and Australian Capital Territory (26). During December, there were 84 fatalities in New

South Wales, 65 in Victoria, 40 in Queensland, 29 in Western Australia, 27 in South Australia, five in. Tasmania, seven in the Northern Territory, and three in A.C.T. April proved to be the most dangerous month on Australian roads, with 296 fatalities.