Transport Minister Mark Bailey Calls Roundtable Over Increase In Road Fatalities

With Queensland experiencing a sudden increase in road fatalities, Transport Minister Mark Bailey has organised a roundtable.

Mr Bailey called the roundtable following troubling data reflecting that 2022’s road fatalities had been the highest since 2009 at 299 deaths.

Mr Bailey told The Courier Mail that speed proved to be one of the most frequent variables among the 299 fatalities.

“Speed contributed to 30 per cent of lives lost and six per cent of hospitalisations,” he said.

“This is about a 45 per cent increase in both hospitalisations and fatal crashes where speed was a factor since the start of the pandemic.”

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Speed was followed closely by drink-driving accounting for at least 23 percent of deaths.

According to Mr Bailey, drink-driving combined with several other factors including speeding resulted in “serious crashes”.

Drivers and passengers failing to wear seatbelts is believed to have been a factor in approximately 45 percent of fatalities.

Mr Bailey is set to meet with a number of leaders and experts from the Queensland Police, Safer Australian Roads and Highways, RACQ, Road Safety Queensland and Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety Queensland to discuss a strategy to curb the spike in fatalities.

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