The faces of SA’s grim road toll: 48 people lost

The death of a man in a mid-north crash today brings the number of people who have died on South Australian roads so far in 2022 to 48.

Forty-eight people have died on South Australian roads so far in 2022.

It’s a stark number but it marks one of the state’s lowest road tolls in more than two decades.

Up to the end of July, the state has second lowest number of deaths this century, 43 people, compared to 42 in 2018.
Five more have lost their lives since.

RAA road safety manager Charles Mountain welcomed the state government-recorded figures but added; “However, 43 lives lost is 43 too many”.

The losses compare to 61 to the end of July in 2021, and were recorded during an intensive pre-March state election road maintenance blitz.

Mr Mountain credited a vision to reduce the road toll to zero, better road maintenance and new roads.

He said serious road injuries were also down, 347 to the end of June compared to 448 for the same period in 2021.

“RAA believes that ongoing investment in both road maintenance, together with targeted upgrade of roads and intersections across the network, is critical to reducing the likelihood and severity of crashes,’’ he said.

Mr Mountain said the latest figures showed more than two thirds of lives lost on SA roads in the first half of this year were on regional roads.

“Single vehicle run-off road crash types continue to be the most common in the first half of 2022, accounting for 59 per cent of all lives lost on South Australian roads,’’ he said.

“This increases to 67 per cent of those lives lost on regional roads.

“We support the State Government’s road safety vision of zero lives lost on our roads by 2050, and the 10-year targets of at least a 50 per cent reduction in lives lost and at least a 30 per cent reduction in serious injuries per capita on SA roads.”

The figures also show all road user types have recorded fewer lives lost in 2022 than the five-year 2016-2020 average.

Death statistics by month have only been recorded since 2000.

But one in three lives lost in the first half of 2022 were people younger than 30, which is slightly above the five-year average.

Older South Australians are safer on the roads so far this year. Seven people have lost their lives aged between 50 and 69 in the first half of this year, compared with 22 lives lost in this age group in the corresponding period last year.

Flowers left at the scene of a fatal accident on Montacute road near Maryvale road in Athelstone, killing two local 17 year old boys. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Officer in charge of the traffic services branch superintendent Bob Gray said the figures were encouraging.

“It is encouraging to see the lives lost on our roads are fewer than at this time last year but there are still too many families who lose loved ones to road trauma every year,’’ he said.

“It is the responsibility of every single one of us to consciously change our driving behaviour to reduce the risk of death or serious injury to ourselves and other road users.

“Every choice to drink or drug drive, exceed the speed limit, be distracted, not wear a seat belt or drive dangerously is risking a life.”