Road Fatalities

In reply to the Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley) (3 July 2023). (Estimates Committee B)

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS (Cheltenham—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services): I have been advised:

The Department for Infrastructure and Transport (the Department) in conjunction with South Australia Police has been actively monitoring this year's road safety statistics and the underlying causes.

Tragically, road user behaviour has been identified as a factor by South Australia Police in many of these crashes.

South Australia's Road Safety Action Plan 2023-25 (the action plan) sets out the South Australian government's actions to achieve its 10-year targets to reduce lives lost by 50 per cent and serious injuries by 30 per cent in line with South Australia's Road Safety Strategy to 2031 and the National Road Safety Action Plan 2023-25.

The action plan includes specific actions for motorcyclist safety, pedestrian and cycling safety, as well as actions to address road user behaviour including distraction, speed and drink and drug driving. Regional roads are also a focus with area planning and network safety planning to identified priority locations for road safety infrastructure treatments.

Road safety campaigns are employed by the state government to increase awareness and educate the community about dangers of our roads and improving road user behaviours. The new motorcycle road safety campaign, 'Back Off', launched in May 2023, intends to reduce the number of motorcyclists who lose their lives on our roads. Other important campaigns include 'Don't Stop Driving by Accident' developed to target the at risk senior driver' demographic (people aged 70 and older). While the award winning 'Selfish Prick' campaign leverages the social implication of drink driving which remains a significant issue for road safety.