Transport is part of our daily lives and a major component of the economy. Unfortunately, every year, thousands of Australians are hurt or die in road and other transport accidents, most commonly while in a car, or on a motorcycle or bicycle.

Transport is the third leading cause of injury hospitalisations in 2024–25 and the fourth leading cause of injury deaths in 2023–24.

In 2023–24, transport-related injuries are estimated to have cost the health system about $1.5 billion. For more detail, see the health system spending report.

Note: Expenditure is an estimate - ICD-10 code inclusions may vary between reporting groups.

Transport-related injuries resulted in around:

  • Hospitalisations 2024–25

    66,890 hospitalisations 

    11.4% of all injury hospitalisations

    244.1 per 100,000 population

  • Deaths 2023–24

    1,494 deaths 

    9.5% of all injury deaths

    5.6 per 100,000 population

Injuries were most likely among:

  • Males (332.8 hospitalisations and 8.7 deaths per 100,000 population)

  • People aged 15–24 (392.5 hospitalisations per 100,000), and 65 and over (9.0 deaths per 100,000)

  • Accidents involving cars (78.6 hospitalisations and 2.5 deaths per 100,000)

Definitions

This article describes unintentional transport injuries resulting in hospitalisation or death. Intentional injuries are included under Self-harm injuries and suicide or Assault and homicide.

ICD-10-AM defines the following:

  1. A transport accident (V00–V99) is any accident involving a device designed primarily for, or being used at the time primarily for, conveying persons or goods from one place to another.
  2. A public highway [trafficway] or street is the entire width between property lines (or other boundary lines) of land open to the public as a matter of right or custom for purposes of moving persons or property from one place to another. A roadway is that part of the public highway designed, improved and customarily used for vehicular traffic.
  3. A traffic accident is any vehicle accident occurring on the public highway [that is, originating on, terminating on, or involving a vehicle partially on the highway]. A vehicle accident is assumed to have occurred on the public highway unless another place is specified, except in the case of accidents involving only off-road motor vehicles, which are classified as non-traffic accidents unless the contrary is stated.
  4. A non-traffic accident is any vehicle accident that occurs entirely in any place other than a public highway.
  5. Where a transport accident involves a vehicle in motion, and results in a subsequent collision, the accident is classified as a collision. If an accident other than a collision resulted, it is classified as a non-collision accident according to the vehicle type involved. This includes, for example, breakage of any part of vehicle, and falls, jumps or being accidentally pushed from vehicles.

ICD-10-AM excludes accidents involving vehicles but unrelated to the hazards associated with the means of transportation from the transport external cause category, for example, injuries sustained during maintenance of vehicles not in motion, assault or self-harm by crashing vehicle, and vehicles involved in cataclysms.

External causes of injury are not currently able to be ascertained reliably from emergency department data. For more detail, please see the Injury in Australia technical notes.

Injuries by type of transport

In 2024–25, most transport-related injury hospitalisations involved cars, motorcycles and pedal cycles, largely because cars are widely used (Figure 1). According to the 2021 Census (ABS 2022), cars were the main mode of commuting, and passenger vehicles accounted for over two-thirds of kilometres travelled in 2019–20 (ABS 2020).

Figure 1: Transport-related injury hospitalisations, by type of transport, 2024–25

The top three types of transport, by number and crude rate, ranked from highest to lowest were cars, motorcycles and pedal cycles.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

In 2023–24, most transport-related deaths involved car occupants, motorcyclists and pedestrians (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Transport-related injury deaths, by type of transport, 2023–24

The top three types of transport involved in injury deaths, ranked by number and crude rate, were car occupants, motorcyclists and pedestrians.

Note: Crude rates where the numerator is less than 10 are not shown due to data volatility.

Sources: AIHW National Mortality Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

For more detail, see Supplementary data tables (Transport Tables 1 and 8).

Collision vs non-collision traffic injury hospitalisations

In 2024–25, 61.2% of transport-related injury hospitalisations were due to collisions, with 29.2% involving a car, pick-up truck or van and 11.6% involving a fixed or stationary object. In addition, 12.2% were classified as other and unspecified transport accidents.

For more detail, see the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts data dashboard.

Trends over time

There is a break in the time series for hospitalisations between 2016–17 and 2017–18 due to a change in data collection methods (see the technical notes for details).

Over the past decade, the rate of transport-related injury hospitalisations has gradually decreased, from 255.9 in 2015–16 to 244.1 per 100,000 in 2024–25 (Figure 3). The hospitalisation rate in 2024–25 was 0.3% lower than the previous 5-year average of 244.9 per 100,000 population.

Figure 3: Transport-related injury hospitalisations, 2015–16 to 2024–25

Numbers and crude rates of injury hospitalisation from 2015–16 to 2024–25.

Note: Columns represent the number of hospitalisations, the line graph represents the crude rate per 100,000 population.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

The number of transport-related injury deaths has generally increased over time. In 2023–24, the rate was 0.4% higher than the previous 5-year average rate of 5.6 per 100,000 population (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Transport-related injury deaths, 2014–15 to 2023–24

Numbers and crude rates of injury death from 2014–15 to 2023–24.

Note: Columns are number of deaths, the line graph represents crude rate per 100,000 population.

Sources: AIHW National Mortality Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

The trends differed depending on the type of transport. Compared to the previous 5-year average, in 2024–25 hospitalisation rates involving:

  • pedestrians increased by 13.5%
  • pedal cycles decreased by 12.9% (Figure 5).

For injury deaths involving cars, rates have decreased by 10.7% compared to the previous 5-year average (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Transport-related injury hospitalisations (2015–16 to 2024–25) and deaths (2014–15 to 2023–24), by type of transport and type of accident

Crude rates of hospitalisation and death among the top four transport types. Rates have generally decreased or remained stable.

Crude rates of hospitalisation and death among the top four transport types. Rates have generally decreased or remained stable.

Note: Crude rates per 100,000 population.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, AIHW National Mortality Database, and ABS National, state and territory population.

For more detail, see Supplementary data tables (Transport Table 1).

Seasonality

Transport-related injury hospitalisations fluctuate through the year, although hospitalisations tend to be lower during winter (Figure 6).

In 2024–25, October had the highest number of hospitalisations (6,059), followed by March (5,981) and April (5,943). The winter months, June, July and August had the lowest number of hospitalisations for transport injuries. 

The season pattern of injury hospitalisations differed for specific transport types:

  • motorcycle accidents were higher in 2024–25 compared to the 5-year average, especially in October, March and April.
  • pedal cycle accidents in 2024–25 were overall lower than the 5-year-average, particularly in the winter months.
  • car accidents in 2024–25 were similar to the 5-year average, with the most hospitalisations occurring in December.

In 2023–24, the highest number of transport-related injury deaths occurred in September (151 deaths), which was higher than the previous 5-year-average. The lowest number of deaths occurred in May (109) and June (104).


Figure 6: Transport-related injury hospitalisations (2024–25) and deaths (2023–24), by transport type and calendar month

An interactive tableau visualisation showing the number of injury hospitalisations and deaths by month for the most recent financial year, and the previous 5-year average. Users can toggle the type of transport.

An interactive tableau visualisation showing the number of injury hospitalisations and deaths by month for the most recent financial year, and the previous 5-year average. Users can toggle the type of transport.

Notes:

  1. The number of hospitalisations and deaths in the most recent financial year is shown by the bars, and the previous 5-year average by the dotted line graph.
  2. Month is based on month of hospital admission.
  3. Hospitalisation counts in June of the most recent financial year may be an underrepresentation of the true number of admissions - see technical notes for details.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, AIHW National Mortality Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

What injuries occur?

Body part injured and type of injury

In 2024–25, the trunk represented the most common site for transport-related injury hospitalisations (63.1 per 100,000 population), followed by the head and neck (59.9 per 100,000) (Figure 7).

There were some differences according to the type of transport involved:

  • shoulder and upper limb injuries were most common for motorcycle, pedal cycle and special all-terrain or off-road vehicle-related hospitalisations
  • hip and lower limb injuries for pedestrian-related hospitalisations
  • head and neck for car-related hospitalisations.

Figure 7: Transport-related injury hospitalisations by main body part injured, 2024–25

An interactive tableau visualisation showing human figure with injury hospitalisation data for each body part. The trunk reported the highest number of injury cases.

An interactive tableau visualisation showing human figure with injury hospitalisation data for each body part. The trunk reported the highest number of injury cases.

Notes:

  1. Main body part relates to the principal reason for hospitalisation.
  2. Number and percentage of injuries classified as Other, multiple and incompletely specified body regions or Injuries not described in terms of body region are not shown.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

For more detail, see transport supplementary data table 6.

Fractures accounted for 48.7% (32,594) of hospitalisations from transport accidents, mainly affecting the shoulder and upper limb, and trunk.

Activity while injured and place of occurrence

72.7% of activity records and 20.7% of place of occurrence records were missing for transport-related hospitalisations.

  • Street and highway was the most commonly specified place of occurrence (64.4%)

Severity

In 2024–25, the average length of stay in hospital for transport-related injuries was similar to the average length of stay for all injuries, however, the proportion of cases that involved ICU or continuous ventilatory support were higher. The proportion of in- hospital deaths, on the other hand, was lower (Table 1).

Table 1: Severity of transport injury hospitalisations, 2024–25

Severity measure

Transport injuries

All injuries

Average number of days in hospital

3.4

3.4

Percentage of cases with time in an ICU (%)

3.7

2.0

Percentage of cases with time on ventilator (%)

2.2

1.1

In-hospital deaths (per 1,000 cases)

3.5

5.7

Notes:

  1. Average number of days in hospital (length of stay) includes admissions that are transfers from one hospital to another or transfers from one admitted care type to another within the same hospital, except where care involves rehabilitation procedures.
  2. All injuries includes transport injuries in the total calculations.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Age and sex

Rates of hospitalisation and death due to transport injuries are higher among males and differ by age (Figure 8).

For transport-related injury hospitalisations in 2024–25:

  • 45,283 cases (67%) were males
  • the rate for males (332.8 per 100,000) was 2.1 times that for females (156.1 per 100,000)
  • males aged 15–24 had the highest rate (541.8 per 100,000).

For transport-related injury deaths in 2023–24:

  • 1,169 deaths (78.2%) were males
  • the rate for males (8.7 per 100,000) was 3.6 times that for females (2.4 per 100,000)
  • males aged 65+ had the highest rate (13.6 deaths per 100,000).

Figure 8: Transport-related injury hospitalisations (2015–16 to 2024–25) and deaths (2014–15 to 2023–24), by type of transport, age group and sex

Interactive Tableau dashboard with a hospitalisations, and a deaths tab. Each tab shows a time series of rates by age group, and by sex. Users can toggle to select the specific type of transport being shown on the dashboard.

Interactive Tableau dashboard with a hospitalisations, and a deaths tab. Each tab shows a time series of rates by age group, and by sex. Users can toggle to select the specific type of transport being shown on the dashboard.

Notes:

  1. Crude rate per 100,000 population.
  2. Break in hospitalisation time series between 2016–17 and 2017–18. See technical notes for detail.
  3. All ages includes records where the age of the patient was not stated.
  4. Persons includes records where the sex of the individual was other, inadequately described, or not stated.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, AIHW National Morbidity Database, and ABS National, state and territory population.

For more detail, see Supplementary data tables (Transport Tables 1 and 2).

First Nations people

Among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people:

  • there were 4,430 hospitalisations due to transport accidents in 2024–25 (422.1 per 100,000)
  • males were 2.3 times as likely as females to be hospitalised (586 and 256.7 per 100,000 population respectively)
  • hospitalisation rates were highest among people aged 15–24 (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Transport-related injury hospitalisations among First Nations people, by age and sex, 2024–25

Among First Nations Australians, 15–24-year-olds have the highest rates of transport injury hospitalisation for both males and females.

Note: Columns are number of hospitalisations, and the line graph represents crude rates (per 100,000 population).

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database and ABS Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Among First Nations people:

  • there were 122 deaths due to transport accidents in 2023–24 (11.8 per 100,000)
  • males were 2.8 times as likely as females to die from transport accidents (17.4 and 6.2 per 100,000 population respectively) (Table 2).
Table 2: Transport-related injury deaths among First Nations people, by sex, 2023–24

Sex

Number of injury deaths

Mortality rate per 100,000 population

Males

90

17.4

Females

32

6.2

Persons

122

11.8

Note: Numbers and rates are reported for 5 jurisdictions combined – New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. These jurisdictions are considered to have adequate levels of Indigenous identification in mortality data.

Sources: AIHW National Mortality Database and ABS Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

For more detail, see Supplementary data tables (Table H5 and Transport Table 5).

Comparison between First Nations people and non-Indigenous Australians

  • 1.8 3.7 Hosp Death

    Transport injuries among First Nations people

    Compared with non-Indigenous Australians, First Nations people were:

    • 1.8 times as likely to be hospitalised due to a transport accident in 2024–25
    • 3.7 times as likely to die in a transport accident in 2023–24 (Figure 10)

Figure 10: Transport-related injury hospitalisations (2017–18 to 2024–25) and deaths (2017–18 to 2023–24), by Indigenous status

Rates of transport hospitalisation and deaths in First Nations populations are on the rise, while rates in non-Indigenous populations are decreasing.

Notes:

  1. Age-standardised rates per 100,000 population.
  2. ‘Non-Indigenous Australians’ excludes cases where Indigenous status is missing or not stated.
  3. Numbers and rates of deaths are reported for 5 jurisdictions combined – New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. These jurisdictions are considered to have adequate levels of Indigenous identification in mortality data.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, AIHW National Mortality Database and ABS Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

In 2024–25, the transport-related injury hospitalisation rate was highest among the 15–24 age group for both First Nations people and non-Indigenous Australians (Figure 11). Data for deaths are not presented because of small numbers.

Figure 11: Transport-related injury hospitalisations, by Indigenous status and age group, 2024–25

Crude rates of transport hospitalisations were highest among the 15–24 age group for both First Nations and non-Indigenous Australians in 2024–25.

Notes:

  1. Crude rates per 100,000 population.
  2. ‘Non-Indigenous’ excludes cases where Indigenous status is missing or not stated.

 Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database and ABS Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

For more detail, see Supplementary data tables (Transport Table 5).

State and territory

The states and territories with the highest rates of transport injury hospitalisation in 2023–24 were:

  • Northern Territory (444.2 per 100,000)
  • Queensland (299.3 per 100,000)
  • Tasmania (273.8 per 100,000).

The states and territories with the highest rates of transport injury death in 2022–23 were:

  • Northern Territory (13.2 per 100,000)
  • Tasmania (8.2 per 100,000)
  • Western Australia (7.1 per 100,000) (Figure 13).

Figure 12: Age-standardised rate of transport injury hospitalisations (2023–24) and deaths (2022–23), by state or territory of usual residence, Australia

Maps of Australia showing age-standardised rate of transport hospitalisation and death by state or territory. The Northern Territory has the highest rates of injury.

Note:

  1. State and territory refers to the state and territory of usual residence for the individual.
  2. Age-standardised rates per 100,000 population.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, AIHW National Mortality Database, and ABS National, state and territory population.

There are some differences in trends across states by type of transport involved (Figure 14). As compared to the previous 5-year average, 2023–24 saw an increased percentage of pedestrian transport injury hospitalisations across all states and territories except South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory, and 2022–23 saw an increase in overall transport deaths in Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania. Victoria also saw increased pedestrian deaths as compared to the previous 5-year average.

Figur 13: Percentage difference in age-standardised rates of transport injury hospitalisations (2023–24) and deaths (2022–23) compared to the previous 5-year average, by state or territory of usual residence, Australia

Maps of Australia showing trends in age-standardised rate of transport hospitalisation and death by state or territory by type of transport.

Maps of Australia showing trends in age-standardised rate of transport hospitalisation and death by state or territory by type of transport.

Notes:

  1. State and territory refers to the state and territory of usual residence for the individual.
  2. Age-standardised rates per 100,000 population.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, AIHW National Mortality Database, and ABS National, state and territory population.

For more information see the geography dashboard and Bureau of Infrastructure’s transport related dashboards.

Remoteness

Areas of Australia which are more remote tend to have higher rates of hospitalisation and death from transport injuries than less remote areas. 

  • Transport injuries by remoteness

    People living in Very remote areas, when compared with people living in Major cities, were 2.3 times as likely to be hospitalised by a transport accident in 2023–24

For most types of transport, the rates of hospitalisation increased with remoteness, and was highest in Very remote regions (Figure 15). Pedal cycle-related injuries represented a notable exception, with higher rates of hospitalisation in Inner Regional areas and Major cities (49.7 and 49.6 per 100,000, respectively).

Figure 14: Age-standardised rates of transport injury hospitalisations, by remoteness, type of transport and financial year, Australia

Interactive tableau dashboard showing a line graph of the rate of transport hospitalisations and deaths by year and remoteness. There are two tabs - one for hospitalisations, and one for deaths. Users can toggle to select different types of transport to display.

Interactive tableau dashboard showing a line graph of the rate of transport hospitalisations and deaths by year and remoteness. There are two tabs - one for hospitalisations, and one for deaths. Users can toggle to select different types of transport to display.

Note: Age-standardised rates per 100,000 population.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

For information on how statistics are calculated by remoteness, see the technical notes.

Socioeconomic areas

Level of socioeconomic disadvantage in Australia impacts the risk of injuries. People living in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas of Australia, compared to the least socioeconomically disadvantaged were:

  • 1.5 times as likely to be hospitalised by a transport accident in 2023–24 (283.9 compared to 187.8 per 100,000 population)
  • 2.7 times as likely to die in a transport accident in 2022–23 (7.4 compared to 2.7 per 100,000 population).

While hospitalisation rates are highest in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas for most transport types, there are some differences in trends across different types of transport (Figure 16):

  • The second most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas had the highest rates of animal or animal-drawn vehicle, motorcycle and special all-terrain or off-road vehicle-related hospitalisations
  • The least socioeconomically disadvantaged areas had the highest rates of pedal cycle-related hospitalisations.

Figure 15: Age-standardised rates of transport injury hospitalisations, by socioeconomic areas, type of transport and financial year, Australia

Interactive tableau dashboard showing a line graph of the rate of transport hospitalisations and deaths by year and socioeconomic status. There are two tabs - one for hospitalisations, and one for deaths. Users can toggle to select different types of transport to display.

Interactive tableau dashboard showing a line graph of the rate of transport hospitalisations and deaths by year and socioeconomic status. There are two tabs - one for hospitalisations, and one for deaths. Users can toggle to select different types of transport to display.

Note: Age-standardised rates per 100,000 population.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

Data details

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