Transport crashes
This setion provides:
- a brief overview of unintentional (accidental) transport injury deaths in 2016–17
- a description of trends in unintentional transport injury deaths from 1999–00 to 2016–17.
Summary statistics for unintentional transport injury deaths in 2016–17 that involved motor vehicle traffic are provided in Appendix B.
What methods were used?
The criteria given in Section 1.3 were applied, and unintentional transport injury deaths were identified in the NMD by the following ICD-10 codes:
- the UCoD was Transport accident (V01–V99)
- the MCoD included codes for Transport accident (V01–V99) and for Injury (S00–T75 or T79).
Suicide and homicide (UCoD X60–Y09) and undetermined intent (UCoD Y10–Y34) deaths were excluded. The concepts underlying the abbreviations used in this section are defined in the Glossary.
Relevant terms and information about the data used in this section are summarised in boxes 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 3.1. Further information on methods is provided in Appendix A.
Box 3.1: External causes of unintentional transport injury
The Transport accidents (V01–V99) section of Chapter XX External causes of morbidity and mortality includes the following groups:
- Pedestrian injured in transport accident (V01–V09)
- Pedal cyclist injured in transport accident (V10–V19)
- Motorcycle rider injured in transport accident (V20–V29)
- Occupant of three-wheeled motor vehicle injured in transport accident (V30–V39)
- Car occupant injured in transport accident (V40–V49)
- Occupant of pick-up truck or van injured in transport accident (V50–V59)
- Occupant of heavy transport vehicle injured in transport accident (V60–V69)
- Bus occupant injured in transport accident (V70–V79)
- Other land transport accidents (V80–V89)
- Water transport accidents (V90–V94)
- Air and space transport accidents (V95–V97)
- Other and unspecified transport accidents (V98–V99).
Overview of transport injury deaths
Although most transport injury deaths are unintentional, some are found to be suicides or homicides. The NMD data on injury deaths in 2016–17 available for use in this report also include 14 deaths involving the crashing of a motor vehicle where intent remained undetermined. (The intent might be determined for some or all of these deaths in the Final release of the ABS data.) Suicide, homicide and undetermined intent deaths are not included in this section, unless specified.
Table 3.1 summarises all of the transport-related injury deaths in 2016–17 that can be identified by means of the ICD-coded Injury death data that are in-scope for this report. Unintentional transport injury deaths, the subject of this section, accounted for more than 95% of all transport injury deaths in 2016–17.
The remainder of this section is limited to unintentional transport injury.
Table 3.1: All identifiable transport injury deaths, 2016–17
|
Terminology in this report |
Coverage in this report | ICD-10 codes | Number | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Unintentional transport injury |
Unintentional Transport injury |
UCoD V01–V99; or MCoD V01–V99 and S00–T75, T79 |
1,409 |
95.3 |
| Intentional self-harm by crashing of motor vehicle | Suicide | UCoD X82; or MCoD X82 and S00–T75, T79 | 42 | 2.8 |
| Assault by crashing of motor vehicle | Homicide | UCoD Y03; or MCoD Y03 and S00–T75, T79 | 14 | 0.9 |
| Crashing of motor vehicle, undetermined intent | Undetermined intent | UCoD Y32; or MCoD Y32 and S00–T75, T79 | 14 | 0.9 |
| Total transport-related deaths | 1,479 | 100.0 | ||
Source: AIHW NMD.
How many deaths in 2016–17 were due to unintentional transport injury?
Transport injuries accounted for 1,409 unintentional injury deaths, almost 11% of all injury deaths (Table 3.2). Unintentional transport injury deaths were 2.9 times as common for males as for females.
Table 3.2: Key indicators for unintentional transport injury deaths, by sex, 2016–17
|
Indicator |
Males | Females | Persons |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Number |
1,052 |
357 |
1,409 |
| Percentage of all injury deaths | 13.3 | 6.9 | 10.7 |
| Crude rate (deaths per 100,000 population) | 8.7 | 2.9 | 5.8 |
| Age-standardised rate (deaths per 100,000 population) | 8.6 | 2.7 | 5.6 |
Source: AIHW NMD.
A very high proportion (95%, 1,336) of deaths due to unintentional transport injury involved land transport (Table 3.3). Of these, almost 88% (1,173) involved accidents on roads.
Table 3.3: Unintentional transport injury deaths, by setting, 2016–17
|
Indicator |
Land transport |
Other(b) |
Total |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
On-road deaths |
Off-road deaths | Unspecified(a) | |||
|
Number |
1,173 |
125 |
38 |
73 |
1,409 |
| Percentage of all unintentional transport injury deaths | 83.3 | 8.9 | 2.7 | 5.2 | 100.0 |
| Age-standardised rate (deaths per 100,000 population) | 4.7 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 5.6 |
Notes:
- Land transport deaths unspecified as to whether they occurred in an on-road or off-road setting.
- Includes water, air, and space transport-related deaths.
More than 29% of all transport injury deaths occurred among people aged 25–44, and nearly 25% among people aged 45–64 (Table 3.4). The proportion of transport injury deaths within each age group was broadly similar for both males and females.
Table 3.4: Unintentional transport injury deaths, by age and sex, 2016–17
|
Age group |
Males |
Females | Persons | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
|
0–4 |
15 |
1.4 |
10 |
2.8 |
25 |
1.8 |
| 5–14 | 21 | 2.0 | 9 | 2.5 | 30 | 2.1 |
| 15–24 | 207 | 19.7 | 51 | 14.3 | 258 | 18.3 |
| 25–44 | 332 | 31.6 | 82 | 23.0 | 414 | 29.4 |
| 45–64 | 252 | 24.0 | 94 | 26.3 | 346 | 24.6 |
| 65+ | 225 | 21.4 | 111 | 31.1 | 336 | 23.8 |
| Total | 1,052 | 100.0 | 357 | 100.0 | 1,409 | 100.0 |
Source: AIHW NMD.
State or territory of usual residence
The age-standardised rate for transport-related injury deaths for residents of the Northern Territory (16.1 deaths per 100,000 population) was almost 3 times the national rate (5.6 deaths per 100,000) (Table 3.5). Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, and Tasmania all recorded rates that were higher than the national rate, while the Australian Capital Territory recorded the lowest rate (2.5 deaths per 100,000).
Table 3.5: Unintentional transport injury deaths, by state/territory of usual residence, 2016–17
|
Indicator |
State/territory of usual residence | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
NSW |
Vic | Qld | WA | SA | Tas | ACT | NT | |
|
Number |
375 |
299 |
315 |
213 |
115 |
39 |
11 |
42 |
| % | 26.6 | 21.2 | 22.4 | 15.1 | 8.2 | 2.8 | 0.8 | 3.0 |
| Age-standardised rate (deaths per 100,000 population) | 4.6 | 4.5 | 6.4 | 8.4 | 6.2 | 7.5 | 2.5 | 16.1 |
Source: AIHW NMD.
Remoteness of usual residence
The rate of transport-related injury deaths rose markedly with increasing remoteness of usual place of residence—in Very remote areas, it was 5 times as high as in Major cities (Table 3.6).
Table 3.6: Unintentional transport injury deaths, by remoteness of usual residence, 2016–17
|
Indicators |
Remoteness of usual residence(b) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Major cities |
Inner regional | Outer regional | Remote | Very remote | |
|
Number(a) |
652 |
412 |
235 |
37 |
37 |
| % | 47.5 | 30.0 | 17.1 | 2.6 | 2.7 |
| Age-standardised rate (deaths per 100,000 population) | 3.6 | 9.3 | 11.5 | 12.0 | 17.9 |
Notes:
- Excludes 37 deaths where remoteness was not available.
- Derived using the ASGS classification.
Source: AIHW NMD.
Socioeconomic area
The age-standardised rate of injury death rose with increasing disadvantage (Table 3.7). The highest rates were among residents of the 2 lowest socioeconomic areas. The rate for people living in the second lowest socioeconomic areas (7.6 deaths per 100,000 population) was 2.5 times as high as the rate for people living in the highest socioeconomic area (3.1 deaths per 100,000 population).
Table 3.7: Unintentional transport injury deaths, by socioeconomic area, 2016–17
|
Indicator |
Socioeconomic area | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1—lowest |
2 | 3 | 4 | 5-highest | |
|
Number |
347 |
380 |
288 |
196 |
161 |
| % | 24.6 | 27.0 | 20.4 | 13.9 | 11.4 |
| Age-standardised rate (deaths per 100,000 population) | 7.0 | 7.6 | 5.8 | 3.9 | 3.1 |
Note: Excludes 37 deaths where socioeconomic area was not reported.
Source: AIHW NMD.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
The age-standardised unintentional transport injury death rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was 2.3 times the rate for non-Indigenous Australians (Table 3.8).
Table 3.8: Key indicators for unintentional transport injury deaths, by Indigenous status and sex, 2016–17
|
Indicator |
Indigenous | Non-Indigenous | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Males | Females | Persons | Males | Females | Persons | |
| Number |
59 |
22 |
81 |
714 |
242 |
956 |
| Age-standardised rate (deaths per 100,000 population) | 19.9 | 6.4 | 13.0 | 8.6 | 2.7 | 5.6 |
| Rate ratio(a) | 2.3 | 2.4 | 2.3 | . . | . . | . . |
| Rate difference(b) | 11.3 | 3.7 | 7.4 | . . | . . | . . |
Notes:
- Rate ratios are standardised rates for Indigenous males, females, and persons divided by standardised rates for non-Indigenous males, females, and persons.
- Rate differences are standardised rates for Indigenous males, females, and persons minus standardised rates for non-Indigenous males, females, and persons.
Includes data for New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory (see Box 1.2).
Source: AIHW NMD.
Due to small case numbers for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, comparisons with non-Indigenous Australians for unintentional transport injury deaths in each age group was difficult (Table 3.9). But the proportions of injury deaths of Indigenous men and women aged 65 and over were much lower than for non-Indigenous men and in that age group.
Table 3.9: Unintentional transport injury deaths, by Indigenous status, age, and sex, 2016–17
| Indigenous | Non-Indigenous | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | |
| Males | ||||
| 0-4 |
3 |
5.1 | 8 | 1.1 |
| 5-14 | 3 | 5.1 | 14 | 2.0 |
|
15–24 |
17 | 28.8 | 146 | 20.4 |
| 25–44 |
21 |
36.6 | 219 | 30.7 |
| 45–64 |
13 |
22.0 | 178 | 24.9 |
|
65+ |
2 | 3.4 | 149 | 20.9 |
|
Total |
59 | 100.0 | 714 | 100.0 |
| Females | ||||
|
0–4 |
4 |
18.2 |
4 |
1.7 |
| 5–14 | 0 | 0.0 | 8 | 3.3 |
| 15–24 | 5 | 22.7 | 39 | 16.1 |
| 25–44 | 9 | 40.9 | 57 | 23.6 |
| 45–64 | 4 | 18.2 | 59 | 24.4 |
| 65+ | 0 | 0.0 | 75 | 31.0 |
| Total | 22 | 100.0 | 242 | 100.0 |
Note: Includes data for New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory (see Box 1.2).
Source: AIHW NMD.