NT Police: Year-to-date 2023 road toll records huge drop

The Territory has recorded an 80 per cent drop in road deaths compared to last year during a horror week on other roads around Australia. Here’s why according to one top cop.

After a devastating year for crash victims, their families and frontline responders, the Territory is now tracking better than the rest of Australia in road safety.

Fifty-two people were killed on NT roads in 2022, with 21 of those lives lost at this point last year.

As we near the halfway mark of this year, four deaths have been recorded.

While four lives lost is four too many, the number pales in comparison to those of other Australian jurisdictions.

NT Police have increased high visibility road operations after a devastating 2022 road toll. Picture: Floss Adams

Victoria’s road toll is already up a devastating 39 per cent on the total this time last year – 134 compared to 96.

The southern state has recorded 10 of those deaths in the last week alone.

In South Australia, four people died in three separate crashes in a horror 24-hour period last week.

The fatalities brought the state’s total to 57 this year so far, compared to 33 at the same point last year.

Western Australia and NSW have also recorded year-to-date increases, while there have been minor drops in Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Michael White said the Territory is the only jurisdiction that has recorded a significant decrease in their 2023 road toll.

He said after a “pretty bad year on the roads”, police had really focused on high-visibility road safety operations this year.

“Over the Road Safety Week we tested nearly 10,000 people, between drugs and drink driving offending,” he said.

“1.6 per cent of all the drivers involved in that were positive.”

He said there was an “emerging issue” with one particular group of motorists responsible for the bulk of those positive drug tests.

“Unfortunately, in the heavy driving industry, people driving heavy vehicles were (mainly) apprehended with drugs in their system,” he said.

“That is a risk for us.”

None of the four road deaths in the Territory this year have involved a collision between two or more cars.

A teenage girl died as her car rolled near Adelaide River in January, while a 45-year-old female pedestrian was hit by a car on Bagot Road in March.

That month a man also died after becoming trapped underneath a trailer near Victoria River before another single-vehicle rollover claimed the life of a man near Hermannsburg last month.