The social cost of road trauma and road injury

Every year, thousands of Australians are affected by road accidents, leaving scars that extend far beyond the scene of the crash. These incidents not only claim lives but can also cause profound emotional and psychological trauma that is felt by their families and communities. 

Read on as we look at Australian statistics for road accidents, including serious injuries and the community impact of road trauma. 

Fatalities and serious road injury in Australia 

Road accidents are the second most common cause of death and serious hospitalised injuries in Australia (the most common is falls). Most road accidents and deaths occur on national and state highways, with the top five causes of fatal road accidents being: 

• Driver distraction, such as using mobile phones, searching for audio options, and eating and drinking 

• Drink driving 

• Speeding, even only slightly above the speed limit 

• Driver fatigue 

• Unrestrained behaviours (such as not wearing a seat belt) 

There’s also a 21% increase in the chance of serious injury or death on the road over Easter, Christmas, or other holidays periods such as school holidays. 

Road injury hospitalisations 

Recent statistics indicate the following for road injury hospitalisations: 

• 31% are for car occupants 

• 24% are for motorcyclists 

• 24% are for cyclists 

• 6% are for pedestrians 

• 15% are unspecified 

Road accident deaths 

As for deaths on Australian roads, recent statistics indicate: 

• 53% of those killed were inside a car 

• 18% were motorcyclists 

• 12% were pedestrians 

Most recently available information on road fatalities indicates: 

• 57% were single vehicle accidents 

• 43% were multi vehicle accidents 

Types of road injury  

Serious injury from road trauma is far more common than fatalities. For example, in 2020-2021 there were around 61,500 hospitalisations due to road injury, and 1,400 deaths. This equates to over 40 people being hospitalised with serious injuries, for every death on our roads. 

The impact of trauma on those injured, their families and communities can be devastating. Hospitalisations for serious road trauma injuries are for injuries to: 

• Head and neck (25%) 

• Trunk / upper body (including spinal injuries) (25%) 

• Shoulder and arm injuries (23%) 

• Hip and leg injuries (18%) 

• Wrist and hand injuries (6%) 

• Ankle and foot injuries (3%) 

It’s estimated that about 10% of people admitted to hospital with a serious injury following a road accident suffer a disability. 

The social impact of road injury and road trauma 

Road injury, road fatality and road trauma have a significant human and financial cost. It’s estimated that the annual social cost of road accidents in Australia is $27 billion. This incorporates estimated costs of:  

• Fatal road accidents $3.5 billion 

• Serious injury road accidents $11.8 billion 

• Property damage only $11.7 billion 

The costs include things like: 

• Hospitalisation, medication, and rehabilitation 

• Disability costs, such as long-term care 

• Coronial costs, where a person dies in a road accident 

• Funeral expenses, for fatal road accidents 

• Transport to medical appointments 

• Domestic care 

• Productivity losses where a person has died or cannot return to work 

• Retraining where car accident injuries impact your ability to return to your usual job 

• Costs associated with decrease in quality of life, such as psychological injury 

• Pain, grief and suffering of family and friends when their loved one is killed in a road accident 

The estimated average social costs for each road accident include: 

• $3.2 million where the accident involves at least one fatality 

• $261,000 for each hospitalised injury 

• $30,400 for each non-hospitalised injury (where you may have seen a GP for your injury or were treated in a hospital’s emergency department but not admitted to hospital) 

The estimated social losses across a lifetime if you’re seriously injured in a car accident include:  

• $4.1 million lifetime loss if you’re severely impaired  

• $1.1 million lifetime loss if you’re moderately impaired 

Shine Lawyers can help with road trauma compensation 

If you or your loved one has been injured in a road accident, get in touch with Shine Lawyers. And if you're a family member or dependent of a loved one who’s been in a fatal car accident, we can help you with your compensation claim. 

Our car accident lawyers and superannuation and disability lawyers are experienced in all aspects of the laws relating to motor vehicle accidents. 

Get in touch with us. Our experienced team will listen to what happened to you and outline your injury claim options.