Apart from the deep personal loss to the families and the community, another tragedy is that most of these deaths and serious injuries are preventable.

In 2011, Australian governments signed up to the National Road Safety Strategy (NRSS) to commit to an agreed set of national road safety goals and actions. 

The strategy target is to reduce Australia's annual number of road deaths and serious injuries by at least 30 per cent by 2020.  

Unfortunately, the target will not be met as only a 13 per cent reduction has been achieved since 2011. December 2017 was particularly bad with 127 deaths on the roads, a 25 per cent increase in the December average for the last 5 years. 

There were 1225 road fatalities for the 12 months ending December 2017, which is a 5.3 per cent decrease from 1293 deaths in 2016, and a very modest improvement.

Why are we not achieving the proposed reductions in deaths and serious injuries on our roads?  

According to the latest NRSS Implementation Status Report, fatality reductions in 2014 were less than expected for the following categories: crashes on remote roads, older drivers and motorcycle riders (increased), cyclists (increased) and crashes involving a heavy vehicle.

Apart from deaths, the number of seriously injured road trauma victims has increased along with the total cost of road trauma.  

There were 42,000 patients hospitalised after road trauma in 2014-15, an increase from 39,000 in 2010-11, according to the Australian Automobile Association (AAA). 

This is the equivalent of 800 people seriously injured and 24 killed on our roads each week. The cost to the economy was around $30 billion for the 2015 year.

The NRSS is in trouble and there is a clear need for federal government leadership. 

Proven evidence-based strategies for reducing road trauma that target a "safe system" by addressing safe people, speeds, roads and vehicles exist internationally. At best, local implementation has been haphazard.

A problem in implementation has been the lack of single-point responsibility for different facets of the strategy. 

For example, the federal government has responsibility for funding national highway and local road networks, administering the "black spot" program and regulating safety standards for new vehicles, while state and territory governments have primary responsibility for funding and operating the road network, vehicle registration, driver licensing, and enforcing road user behaviour.

In response to pressure from road safety bodies and clinicians, the federal government in 2017 announced an inquiry into the NRSS, which will hand down its findings in April and the results will be keenly awaited.​