Over 50,000 people were seriously injured in land transport
accidents in 2005-06 according to a new report, Serious injury
due to land transport accidents, Australia, 2005-06, released
today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and
the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development
and Local Government.
Over half (52%) of the resulting hospital admissions were young
people aged less than 30 years of age (26,026 hospital admissions)
and over a quarter were in the 15-24 year age bracket (13,542).
Jesia Berry of the Institute's National Injury Surveillance Unit
said, 'The most common types of accidents that resulted in
hospitalisation were car collisions with another vehicle on a
public road, cars colliding with a fixed or stationary object, and
off-road motorcycle and off-road pedal bicycle accidents.
Overall, males had more than twice the rate of non-fatal land
transport injury (338 per 100,000 people compared to 156 per
100,000 for females).
'Focusing on crashes involving a motor vehicle that occurred on
public roads in 2005-06, we found that they resulted in 31,204
persons seriously injured to the point they were hospitalised. This
represents 62% of all hospitalised cases due to land transport
accidents,' Ms Berry said.
The most frequently injured road user groups were car occupants
(16,146 admissions) motorcyclists (6,479), pedal cyclists (4,370)
and pedestrians (2,644)
The rate of serious injury was 38 times higher for motorcyclists
than for car occupants (395 motorcyclists compared to 10 car
occupants were seriously injured per 100 million kilometres
travelled).
The rate of serious injury was low for occupants of heavy
transport vehicles (3 heavy transport vehicle occupants injured per
100 million kilometres travelled).
The rate of serious injury due to road vehicle traffic crashes
increased in the last three years of the seven-year period from
1999-00 to 2005-06. The increase was mainly attributable to higher
numbers of seriously injured motorcyclists and pedal cyclists.
Another internet-only report, Serious injury due to
transport accidents, Australia, 2005-06, was also released
today.
Wednesday 23 July 2008
Further information: Jesia Berry, AIHW, tel. 08
8201 7602.
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel. 61 2 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for the availability of Serious injury due to
land transport accidents, Australia, 2005-06.