New research has revealed that most deaths on regional Victorian roads over the past five years involved local residents.
Transport Accident Commission (TAC) analysis of road fatalities from 2020 to 2024 has shown that more than 70% of people killed on country roads died within a 30km radius of their home address.
This year 74 lives have been lost on the State’s roads compared with 75 at the same time last year. The TAC said January was the deadliest month since March 2008, and the worst start to a year since 2001.
The organization said the majority of fatalities so far this year have also happened on regional roads where there have been 43 lives lost, compared with 31 in metropolitan Melbourne.
The TAC said its data dispelled the myth that people dying in fatal crashes in regional Victoria were predominantly visitors or people unfamiliar with the roads they were traveling on – just four per cent of deaths were people travelling from outside of Victoria or Australia.
Around 70% of the regional fatalities analysed happened on high-speed roads, most of which had low traffic volumes and gravel shoulders and involved either a vehicle running off the road or into an oncoming vehicle or crashing at an intersection.
“The evidence is clear – crashes often happen close to home, on familiar roads that we know like the back our hand,” said Transport Accident Commission CEO Tracey Slatter.
“Our new insights reinforce the need for us all to be aware of risks on local roads, not to be complacent, and to give our undivided attention to driving until we reach our destination safely.”
“We can all a play in part in keeping ourselves and others safe on the road by obeying the law, avoiding risky behaviours and being 100 per cent focused very time we get behind the wheel.”
