• Intentional injury child mortality
• Criminal victimisation
• Perceptions of safety
• Road casualties

Road casualties

Relevance

Road deaths are a major cause of premature death, especially among young adults. Deaths, injuries and disability resulting from motor vehicle crashes inflict considerable pain and suffering on individuals, families and communities, as well as on other road users, emergency service providers, health workers and others.

Current level and trends

In 2005, 405 people died as a result of motor vehicle crashes, a rate of 9.9 deaths per 100,000 population. A further 14,427 people were injured, a rate of 352 injuries per 100,000 population.⁸⁵ Deaths and injuries from motor vehicle crashes have declined substantially since 1986, when the rates were 23.1 and 569.6 per 100,000, respectively. The number of people killed in motor vehicle crashes was 47 percent lower in 2005 than it was in 1986. Although the number of people injured has risen since 2000, there were 24 percent fewer people injured in 2005 than in 1986.

There is no conclusive evidence on the reasons for the reduction in road casualties since 1986. Better roads and better vehicles, as well as legislation, enforcement and education aimed at reducing road casualties, may all have contributed to an improvement in drivers' attitudes and behaviour.

Figure SS4.1 Road traffic injury and death rates, 1986–2005

Sources: Ministry of Transport (2005); Ministry of Transport, 2006 – forthcoming
Note: 2005 injury data is provisional

Age and sex differences

Young people aged 15–24 years are at a far higher risk of injury or death from motor vehicle crashes than any other age group. Death and injury rates for 15–24 year olds are more than double those of the population as a whole (22 deaths and 794 injuries per 100,000 in 2005). The risk of dying is relatively low in middle age, then increases sharply at older ages, partly because of the increasing fragility of the very old.

Males are much more likely than females to be injured or killed in motor vehicle crashes. In 2005, the injury rate was 406 per 100,000 for males and 295 per 100,000 for females; the death rate was 14.5 per 100,000 for males and 5.4 per 100,000 for females.

Table SS4.1 Road casualty rates, by age and sex, 2005

Source: Ministry of Transport, 2006 – forthcoming, Table 5, rates derived by the Ministry of Social Development
Note: 2005 injury data is provisional

Ethnic differences

Māori are much more likely than other ethnic groups to die in motor accidents, with an age-standardised death rate of 17 per 100,000 population in 2001. In comparison, the death rate for European and Other ethnic groups was 11 per 100,000 in 2001 and for Pacific peoples, 12 per 100,000. Because of a change in the classification of injury deaths, data for 2000 and 2001 is not comparable with earlier years.

Table SS4.2 Land transport accident death rates, by ethnicity, 1996–2001

Source: Ministry of Health, New Zealand Health Information Service
Note: The injury mortality classification changed in 2000

Māori and Pacific peoples are less likely to drive than Europeans, but they are at a greater risk of injury and death from motor vehicle crashes. A 1998 survey showed that, per distance driven, the risk of being hospitalised as a result of a crash was more than three times as high for Māori drivers, and only slightly less than three times as high for Pacific drivers, compared to European drivers.⁸⁶

International comparison

In 2003, New Zealand was ranked 17th equal among 29 OECD countries, with a road death rate of 11.5 per 100,000 people.⁸⁷ This was above the OECD median of 10.5 deaths per 100,000. Sweden had the lowest road death rate (5.9 per 100,000), followed closely by Norway and the United Kingdom (each 6.1 per 100,000). The New Zealand road death rate was lower than that of the United States at 14.7 per 100,000, but higher than those of Canada (8.7 per 100,000) and Australia (8.2 per 100,000).