Stuart Highway named the most dangerous
An analysis of thousands of insurance claims has revealed the worst roads in the Territory. See how your suburb ranks.
Northern Territory
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The Stuart Highway has earned its reputation as the highway to hell, with seven of the worst crash hotspots along ‘The Track’.
An analysis of more than 350,000 motor vehicle insurance claims from across the country have revealed the most dangerous stretches of road in the Northern Territory.
The AAMI report complied crash reports from the last financial year, with claims ranging from minor bingles to devastating fatal crashes from its own data, alongside Suncorp Insurance, GIO, Apia and Bingle.
It unsurprisingly found the Stuart Highway was the worst road in the Territory, with seven of the top 10 crash hotspots along the 1790km stretch.
The most dangerous road in the NT was the section of highway at Katherine, according to the AAMI research.
This was the same stretch that claimed the lives of 28-year-old mum Sheralee Ten-Haghuis and a 30-year-old woman in October 2022.
The two women were among 52 people killed on Territory roads last year, the worst annual road toll in more than a decade.
AAMI Motor Customer Engagement head Tammy Hall said the most crash-prone time on the Katherine section was Saturday afternoon, between 1pm and 4.30pm.
“The Katherine stretch of the Stuart Highway sees a constant flow of traffic, with motorists travelling to and from the shops and other amenities throughout the township,” Ms Hall said.
She said the greatest threat was not other Katherine drivers — but rouge critters on the highway with animal collisions making up 64 per cent of claims.
The Adelaide River and Alice Springs sections of the Stuart Highway tied as the second most infamous crash hotspots, followed by the highway at Pine Creek and then Darwin.
Berrimah on the Stuart Highway and Cox Penisula Road near Berry Springs tied for fifth place, while Tiger Brennan Driver at Winnellie, the Arnhem Highway at Humpty Doo and Coolalinga’s stretch of the Stuart Highway tied for sixth place.
Ms Hall said these crash hotspots were typically where busy major arterial roads met shopping centres and local streets.
She said carparks were particular magnets for minor crashes, with stationary object collisions the most common accident type.
“When it comes to collisions with stationary objects, we tend to see a lot of these in shopping centre carparks, so watch out for pillars, trolleys and bollards,” Ms Hall said.
The AAMI data showed Territory men were the worst drivers, involved in 71 per cent of crashes, while people aged 35 to 49 crashed more than any age group.
Ms Hall reminded Territorians to remain vigilant on the roads, with even low-speed crashes carrying the potential of serious injury “or worse”.
“Crashes can occur anywhere, and often when we’re close to home as that’s when we can let our guard down,” she said.
“All it takes is a split second of not having your eyes on the road for things to go wrong.”
The latest Productivity Commission data showed the Territory had the highest rate of crash hospitalisations, with 509 hospital trips from crashes per 100,000 registered vehicles - more than twice the national average.
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