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Road casualties

Relevance

Motor vehicle crashes are a major cause of premature death, especially among younger age groups. 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 2007, 423 people died as a result of motor vehicle crashes, a rate of 10.0 deaths per 100,000 population. Provisional reported injury data for 2007 shows a further 15,902 people were injured, a rate of 376 injuries per 100,000 population.⁹⁷ In 2006, the death rate was 9.4 per 100,000 and the injury rate was 363 per 100,000. Deaths and injuries from motor vehicle crashes have declined substantially since 1986, when the rates were 23.1 and 570 per 100,000 population, respectively. The number of people killed in motor vehicle crashes was 45 percent lower in 2007 than it was in 1986. Although the number of people injured has risen since 2000 (partly because of better recording by police), there were 16 percent fewer people injured in 2007 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, 1986–2007

Source: Ministry of Transport
Note: 2002–2006 data has been revised using new population estimates

Age and sex differences

Young people aged 15–24 years have more than double the death rate from motor vehicle crashes than the population as a whole. The risk of dying in a crash is relatively low in middle age, then increases at older ages, partly because the very old are more fragile.

The death rate for all age groups has fallen steadily over the period since 1986. The decline has been particularly marked among 15–24 year olds, who had an average annual rate of 21 deaths per 100,000 in the period 2003–2007, a big improvement on the average annual rate of 48 deaths per 100,000 for the 1988–1992 period.

Males are much more likely than females to be killed in motor vehicle crashes.

Between 2003 and 2007, the average annual death rate for males was 14 deaths per 100,000 males, while the rate for females was 6 deaths per 100,000 females.

For both sexes this was considerably lower than the average annual rate for the 1988–1992 period (30 deaths per 100,000 for males and 12 per 100,000 for females).

Figure SS4.2 Five-year average annual road death rates, by age, 1988–1992 to 2003–2007

Source: Ministry of Transport, rates derived by Ministry of Social Development

Ethnic differences

Māori are much more likely than other ethnic groups to die in motor accidents, with a provisional age-standardised death rate of 20 per 100,000 population in 2005. In comparison, the provisional death rate for the European and Other ethnic groups in 2005 was 10 per 100,000 and for Pacific peoples, 9 per 100,000.

Table SS4.1 Land transport accident death rates, by ethnicity, 2000–2005

Source: Ministry of Health, New Zealand Health Information Service
Notes: (1) The injury mortality classification changed in 2000 and, as a result, data from earlier years is not comparable (2) 2005 data is provisional

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.⁹⁸

International comparison

In 2006, New Zealand was ranked 16th out of 27 OECD countries, with a road death rate of 9.4 per 100,000 people.⁹⁹ This was similar to the OECD median of 9.3 deaths per 100,000. The Netherlands had the lowest road death rate (4.5 per 100,000), followed by Sweden (4.9 per 100,000). The New Zealand’s road death rate was lower than that of the United States at 14.7 per 100,000, but higher than those of Canada (9.1 per 100,000), Australia (7.7 per 100,000) and the United Kingdom (5.4 per 100,000). New Zealand’s road death rate for youth aged 15–24 years (16.9 per 100,000) ranked 18th, just above the OECD median of 16.0 deaths per 100,000 people aged 15–24 years.