Apart from the suffering of victims and their loved ones, the financial cost of fatalities and injuries to our community is over $900 million each year.

With the key objective of reducing the road toll, the State Government has developed the South Australian Road Safety Action Plan 2008-2010 which promotes strategies in the key areas of Safer Roads, Safer Speeds, Safer Road Users and Safer Vehicles.

South Australia’s Strategic Plan has set a target of reducing road fatalities to less than 90 persons per year by 2010.

The Strategic Plan has also set a target to reduce serious injuries to less than 1000 per year by 2010. To reach this target will require a considerable decrease to the current total.

Details of South Australia’s progress towards the 2010 target are available in the Road Safety Progress Report. The Report details fatalities and serious injuries each quarter as well as monitoring police enforcement levels and claims made to the Motor Accident Commission.

Nationally South Australia is performing well against other states. In the past 5 years, SA has achieved an average annual decrease in fatalities of 8.5% compared to:

• NSW with a decrease of 5.3%
• Victoria a decrease of 1.4%
• Queensland with an increase of 1.7%
• WA an increase of 5.3%.

While we have achieved a considerable reduction in fatalities and the current trend is relative to reaching the target, further commitment is required to reduce fatalities and serious injuries.