This represents 12% of injury hospitalisations and 9.9% of injury deaths. Males and young people are particularly at risk, and fracture is the most common type of injury sustained in hospitalised cases.
This report summarises data on unintentional transport injuries resulting in hospitalisation or death. Intentional injuries are included under Self-harm injuries and suicide or Assault and homicide.
In 2020–21, 31% of transport injury hospitalisations were for car occupants and 25% were for motorcyclists (Table 1).
Table 1: Types of transport involved in injury hospitalisations, 2020–21
Type of transport
|
Hospitalisations
|
%
|
Rate (per 100,000)
|
Car occupants (V40–49)
|
21,327
|
31
|
83
|
Motorcyclists (V20–29)
|
16,817
|
25
|
66
|
Pedal cyclists (V10–19)
|
16,517
|
24
|
64
|
Pedestrian (V00–09)
|
3,638
|
5
|
14
|
Other or unspecified (V30–39, V50–99)
|
10,009
|
15
|
39
|
Total
|
68,308
|
100
|
266
|
Notes
- Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
- Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.
- Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10-AM (11th edition) external cause codes (ACCD 2019).
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.
For more detail, see Data tables B1–2.
In 2019–20, 51% of transport injury deaths were for car occupants and 16% were for motorcyclists (Table 2).
Table 2: Types of transport involved in injury deaths, 2019–20
Mode of transport
|
Number
|
%
|
Rate
(per 100,000)
|
Car occupants (V40–49)
|
678
|
51
|
2.7
|
Motorcyclists (V20–29)
|
209
|
16
|
0.8
|
Pedestrian (V01–09)
|
180
|
14
|
0.7
|
Pedal cyclists (V10–19)
|
55
|
4
|
0.2
|
Other or unspecified (V30–39, V50–99)
|
210
|
16
|
0.8
|
Total
|
1,332
|
100
|
5.2
|
Notes
- Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
- Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.
- Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10 external cause codes (WHO 2011).
Source: AIHW National Mortality Database.
For more detail, see Data tables E1–2.
Hospital admissions due to transport injuries suggest some patterns over the year. There are several peaks, potentially due to changed traffic during holiday periods.
In March 2020, COVID-19 restrictions interrupted the usual activity of many Australians. In April 2020, the number of hospital admissions due to transport injuries was noticeably lower than previous years, and there were 11% fewer from March to May than the same period of the previous year (Figure 1). As initial restrictions eased, transport injuries rose and by June were higher than the same month of previous years.
The interactive display shows other seasonal patterns in injury hospitalisations.

Notes
1. Admission counts have been standardised into two 15-day periods per month.
2. A scale up factor has been applied to June admissions to account for cases not yet separated.
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.
The age-standardised rate of hospitalisations due to transport injuries in 2020–21 was 8.2% higher than a year earlier. The previous year had seen a small drop likely related to COVID-19 restrictions, which impacted travel and the need for transportation services.
From 2011–12 to 2016–17 there was an average annual rise of 1.0% for the age-standardised rate of hospitalisations.
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).
For transport deaths, the age-standardised rate for 2019–20 was 8.0% lower than a year earlier. The average annual change in rate between 2010–11 and 2019–20 was -3.7% (Figure 2).