Mortality RatesAmongst young people, injury continues to be the leading cause of death. It accounts for 67% of all their deaths. Road deaths account for 35% of the injury and poisoning deaths. However, from 1987 to 2007, there has been an overall decline in road traffic deaths.
In the 15-24 year age group, death rates among males were three times as high as among females in road traffic deaths (15 and 5 per 100, 000 respectively) |
Morbidity Rates |
Road related injury has a significant, but frequently preventable, impact on the health of Australia's young people. In areas where there has been recent and considerable focus, such as road safety, there have been noticeable gains in the prevention of a number of different types of injuries. Injury and poisoning were the third most common cause of hospitalisation in 2007-2008. One of the most common reasons for injury hospitalisations of young people were road crashes.
|
Trends |
Injury is the single biggest killer of Australian youth;
more than all other causes combined
•45 per cent of all young Australian injury deaths are due to road traffic crashes •The injury death rate for Indigenous youth is 5 times greater than for non-Indigenous youth •Of all hospitalisations of young Australians, almost half are drivers involved in a road traffic crash and another quarter are passengers •Young drivers (17 – 25 years) represent one-quarter of all Australian road deaths, but are only 10 – 15% of the licensed driver population •A 17 year old driver with a P1 licence is four times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than a driver over 26 years •The biggest killer of young drivers is speeding and around 80 per cent of those killed are male •One-third of all speeding drivers and rider in fatal crashes are males aged 17 – 25; 6 per cent are females aged 17 – 25. Overall injury mortality has tended to decline during recent decades, largely as a result of a decline in road deaths. The road toll in Australia has fallen from 3,578 (25.2 per 100,000 population) in 1977 to 1,715 (8.7 per 100,000 population) in 2002 (ATSB 2003). The decline in road deaths has slowed more recently. This decrease is seen through increased awareness and education through health initiatives such as ''Speeding. No one Thinks Big of You'' that aims to make speeding socially unacceptable and others such as ''Don't Rush'' continuing success with "How sorry will you be?", encouraging passengers to tell speeding drivers to slow down. Earlier versions of the campaign showed how more lives would be lost if there were no speed cameras and presented frontline medical staff directly impacted by the consequences of road trauma. |