A leading road safety researcher is calling on the Queensland government to rethink its approach to road safety amid a climbing number of fatalities on the state's roads.
The call follows a spate of road deaths across the state, including one that took the life of Australian cricket legend Andrew Symonds.
His death came just a week after a Mother's Day crash at Springfield, west of Brisbane, killed two people and sent three more to hospital with serious injuries.
Several more people died in fatal road crashes throughout the week.
Police data shows more than 120 fatalities have occurred on Queensland roads since the start of this year.
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) have already responded to nearly 5,000 traffic road crashes this year.
Historical data from the Department of Transport and Main Roads shows more than 4,600 motorists were admitted to hospital after being involved in car accidents in Queensland between January 1 and September 30 of 2016.
That figure was nearly 6,000 across the same nine-month period last year.
'Never forget any of them'
QFES Acting Inspector Christopher Clark has responded to "hundreds" of crashes over his 14-year career and said that number had been on the rise annually.
"The majority of our work, unfortunately, is responding to road traffic crashes," he said.
While not all crashes ended in death, Inspector Clark said every one had an impact on him.
"I have to choose which stories I can tell my partner — my partner, who I share my life with — because some of them she doesn't need to hear, she doesn't need to be exposed to that trauma," he said.
Australia 'lagging behind' on safety requirements
Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said crashes in Queensland were "overwhelmingly" caused by driver behaviour behind the wheel.
"Often, I'll read the fatality summaries and it'll be alcohol, speeding and lack of a seatbelt," Mr Bailey said.
But leading road safety researcher Professor Narelle Haworth said that, by targeting the causes of fatalities, policymakers missed the bigger picture.
Dr Haworth — a researcher with the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety Queensland and vice president of policy at the Australasian College of Road Safety — has examined Australia's road toll for more than 30 years.
"The government, and particularly the police, like to talk about the 'fatal five'," Dr Haworth said.
"[They] talk about speeding, drink driving, not wearing seatbelts, [fatigue], distraction and so on, and we know that they are quite strongly represented in fatal crashes.
"But, when we look at serious injuries, we find that those factors are much less common.
Dr Haworth has called on state and federal leaders to invest in more roadside barriers to enhance safety.
"We need to do more about protecting roadsides — that may involve more barriers or removing hazards," she said.
"We need to look at what is actually safe in this particular road environment, and either improve the road itself, or bring the speed limit down.
"Australia's requirements for safety for cars are lower than many other countries in the world.
"We're lagging behind and I think that we need to continue to pressure the federal government … to actually bring the requirements that we have for cars and trucks more into line with what's required in Europe."
Road accident hospital admissions rising
Dr Haworth said that, while fatalities hovered "around much the same sorts of figures" each year, the number of people admitted to hospital from road crashes had climbed in Queensland and in most jurisdictions in Australia.
Once in hospital, a patient is moved from the emergency department to other wards, and perhaps rehabilitation, each of these is an "episode of care".
Queensland Health data shows that hospitals recorded 12,408 episodes of care related to road trauma, statewide, from 2020 to 2021.
Road trauma-related episodes of care in Queensland have climbed nearly every year since 2015.
Dr Haworth said the growing number of hospital admissions after car crashes were concerning.
"It's very large numbers, and many of those people will still have ongoing restrictions on their activities for the rest of their lives."
Dr Haworth said the population boom Queensland had experienced during the pandemic could also be driving the increase in serious crashes.
"People are driving more, and more people also means more trucks to deliver things to them," she said.
Queensland government concedes higher penalties not working
The Queensland government last month announced harsher penalties for seatbelt, red light and speeding offences to tackle the death toll, but Mr Bailey conceded that, so far, increased penalties have not worked.
"It takes a little time for that message to get through and, clearly, to this day, it hasn't been," Mr Bailey said.
The government said road expenditure was at "record levels", with revenue from road fines invested back into improving road safety across Queensland.
However, Mr Bailey said reducing risky behaviour on the roads remained his priority.
"There is a minority of crashes that are related to environmental factors, but the vast majority of them are people making risky decisions — often multiple risky decisions at the same time — and paying a terrible price for them," he said.
