RACQ agrees with a broad coalition of transport and medical bodies campaigning for greater use of road trauma data to create more effective road safety policies and reverse the ongoing increases in annual road deaths.

State and territory governments hold this data, but it is not shared between governments or shown to Australian motorists.

Australian Automobile Association (AAA) polling shows two-thirds of Australians rank ‘safety’ as their top transport priority.

RACQ has endorsed the AAA’s Data Saves Lives campaign which calls on the Federal Government to require all states and territories to release this road trauma data as a condition of receiving their share of its annual $10 billion road funding budget.

RACQ Head of Public Policy Michael Kane said the Queensland and Federal governments should include data-sharing obligations as part of the new National Partnership Agreement on Land Transport Infrastructure Projects being negotiated by the Commonwealth and states and territories.

“Despite billions of dollars being spent each year, more people are dying on our roads,” Dr Kane said.

“We need to see the data to understand why.

“The Federal Government must compel states and territories to share road data with other governments and with Australian motorists so we can understand the crashes that are killing more Queenslanders so that we can better predict and prevent crashes in the future.”

AAA Managing Director Michael Bradley said data transparency would save lives, curb billions of dollars in wasted expenditure and deliver the funding integrity voters want and expect.

“The new National Partnership Agreement presents a real opportunity for the Commonwealth to lead Australia’s transition to data-driven safety policy,” Mr Bradley said.

The Data Saves Lives website outlines Australia’s road safety challenges and lists every federal MP and whether they support linking federal road funding with data transparency and evidence-based policy.