Australia has two horrific road tolls. But we spend all our resources trying to fix the impossible one.

Take the NSW government’s Towards Zero campaign, a state-funded push to eliminate vehicle accident deaths. It is totally admirable, totally understandable, and totally unrealistic. Because unless the state government can eliminate recklessness and errors of judgment – two steadfast human traits – the horrible truth is that anything close to zero is inconceivable.

Electric cars get priority in the bus lane, left, on this main road into Oslo, Norway, where about 30 per cent of all new cars have plug-in cables rather than petrol tanks. Credit:AP

This reality rightly appalls us. Over the long weekend, we saw five people across the state lose their lives in vehicle accidents – including a toddler.

Yet where's the moral urgency when it comes to our other road toll? Because while 1224 Australians lost their lives due to vehicle accidents last year, about 1715 died as a result of vehicle pollution.