By Brittany Busch and Craig Butt
A total of 3890 people have died on Victoria’s roads over the past 15 years, and in 75 per cent of Melbourne suburbs there was at least one fatal crash in that time, Transport Accident Commission data shows.
The Age has obtained detailed road toll data from the TAC to pinpoint where and when the most deaths occurred, and which road users were the most affected.
The scene of a road death in Sunshine North in 2022.Credit: Eddie Jim
The map below shows the total number of road deaths that occurred in every Melbourne suburb between 2010 and 2024. Further down in this article, there are graphs that provide context on your suburb’s road toll, breaking down when the deaths were recorded and the road users involved.
When viewing the map, keep in mind the most populated suburbs, such as Werribee (where there were 22 road deaths, the most of any Melbourne suburb), will have more people on the roads and, therefore, have a greater risk of fatal crashes.
Here are some graphs that explore the road toll data.
Little change in the road toll since 2010
In 2024, 282 people died on Victorian roads – 13 fewer than in 2023. However, the road toll has remained relatively consistent over the past 15 years.
The number of road deaths hit a low of 211 in 2020, which coincided with people staying inside and at home more during COVID-19 lockdowns, but the death toll has now returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Samantha Cockfield, the TAC’s executive general manager for road safety, said a growing population made it more difficult to reduce the toll.
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Glenn Weir said the state’s road toll was low compared with the rest of Australia on a per-person basis, but that any loss of life was unacceptable.
“It’s pretty good, but of course, it’s no good if you’re a family member or friend or a victim of road trauma because those numbers mean nothing to you,” Weir said. “We can just look at percentages and rises and losses, but every one of those numbers is a person. For us, there’s never any acceptable level of road trauma, but we’re conscious that it’s not going to be changed overnight.”
Select your suburb on the interactive graph below to see how many road deaths have occurred in your area each year since 2010.
Vulnerable road users represented about 45 per cent of all deaths in 2024
Last year, 47 pedestrians, 63 motorcyclists, 12 cyclists and four e-scooter riders were killed on the state’s roads, collectively accounting for 126 deaths.
There were also 126 deaths among drivers, about 45 per cent of road deaths.
Passengers represented the rest of the state’s 282 road deaths, with 30 recorded.
Authorities have warned of an increase in deaths of vulnerable road users, and that pedestrians are more frequently being seriously injured.
E-scooter rider deaths have been counted as a distinct road user category in the road toll since 2022, with one rider death recorded last year in each of Mill Park, Port Fairy, Springvale and St Albans.
Select your suburb on the interactive graphic below to see the breakdown of deaths by road user for your area over the past 15 years.
Weekends were the most dangerous time of the week
Over the past 15 years, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays have been the days on which the most people are killed on the state’s roads.
The TAC data also provides a breakdown of what time of day crashes tend to occur. The graph below illustrates the proportion of deaths that were recorded during each four-hour interval.
Between Monday and Thursday, the thinnest layers on the graph are the red sections at the top (representing midnight to 4am) and the orange section at the bottom (between 8pm and midnight). The most deaths occur during the middle of the day.
However, on Friday night and during the weekend, the road toll bulges in the red and orange sections, showing a jump in deaths between 8pm and 4am.
As more people were socialising and drinking at the weekend, the risk of crashes increased, Cockfield said. She said fatigue was also a factor in these deaths, and the risk increased if a driver was tired or driving when they would normally be asleep.
Young men were overrepresented among road deaths
Men have accounted for 72 per cent of all road deaths in the past 15 years.
The graph below shows the difference between males and females at each age, with men represented by the blue line and women by the pink.
The highest point of each line shows deaths of both genders peaked at 19 years of age, when new drivers are starting to swap their red P-plates (after one year as a probationary driver) for green ones (three years).
Men were killed on the roads at a higher rate than women until retirement age, although the difference between the genders decreased as people got older.
Cockfield said men were overrepresented partly because they were more likely to engage in risky behaviour and more likely to work jobs that required commuting over longer distances.
Weir said speed was still the biggest factor in road trauma, and a driver only had to slow down slightly to improve their outcomes in a crash.
“I’m not talking about excessively high speeds,” he said. “People need to realise that the faster you’re going, the less time for reaction, the higher the impact of collision, and the worse the outcome.
“From a policing perspective, we can’t enforce our way out of this. This is a whole of government and whole of community response that’s needed – people just need to take responsibility for their actions.”
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