They are the faces of Australia’s road toll tragedy.

Home and Away actor Jessica Falkholt, her sister Annabelle, mother Vivian, father Lars and young couple Hannah Ferguson and Reagan Skinner.

All of them lost their lives within days of each other while out driving on the nation’s roads over the Christmas and New Year period.

As the shockwave of grief continues to be felt, local and federal government are focusing on what can be done to prevent families experiencing similar heartbreak in the future.

The Falkholts, from Ryde in Sydney’s north, were travelling home down the south coast on Boxing Day when their car was struck head-on by a 4WD near Ulladulla.

Vivian and Lars died instantly while their daughters were both pulled from the wreckage of their car before it burst into flames.

Annabelle, a 21-year-old childcare worker, survived just three days in Liverpool Hospital after the horror crash before succumbing to her injuries.

This week rising star Jessica , 28, died in St George Hospital just six days after her life support was turned off.

The faces of Australia's road toll: Jessica Falkholt, Annabelle Falkholt, Hannah Ferguson and Reagan Skinner.

Craig Whitall, the 50-year-old driver of the 4WD which crashed into the Falkholts, also perished in the Boxing Day tragedy. Whitall, who reportedly had served jail time for almost 200 driving offences but was legally back behind the wheel, was returning from a Nowra methadone clinic at the time of the collision.

Preliminary data from the NSW government shows drug-affected drivers were a major contributing factor in 36 fatal accidents in the first half of 2017, resulting in 42 deaths.

The search for answers

Bernard Carlon, executive Director of the NSW Centre for Road Safety, said there was no “silver bullet” to end the death toll outside of following the road rules.

He told nine.com.au 98 per cent of the state’s run-off-road crashes are committed by drivers who think they can take the risk and go against the speed signs.

“We’ve had a long history of reducing the road toll in NSW and even our recent modelling we’ve done to prepare the new road safety plan… since 2009 the measures that we’ve had in place have saved more than 700 lives and more than 1000 injuries,” he said.

These measures include improving safety features on the road network with a focus on pedestrian safety, tripling the amount of roadside drug testing and refocusing police enforcement efforts as well as fencing and wire rope barriers. Despite the improvements, Mr Carlon says more work needs to be done.

“But clearly with the road toll going up, we need to ramp up those efforts.”

The Boxing Day horror crash wiped out Jessica Falkholt's (far left) entire immediate family.

He said one area that needs focus is the presence of drugs in people’s systems, and heavy vehicles.

“We need to turn our attention to the 41 percent of increase in fatalities that we’ve seen in light trucks and utilities,” he said.

“There are measures that we know work but as we see trends arise, the country fatalities increasing, we need to invest more and bring in stronger regulations and laws just like we’ve done over 30 years in tackling the road toll.”

The blame game

NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance, who lives not far from where the Falkholt's horror crash took place, says it is time to look closely at how to reduce these types of horrific incidents.

“I think this is the key point, governments can’t solve all problems,” he told the TODAY Show.

“If people go out and risk the lives of others – doesn’t matter if it’s a drink driver, or someone on drugs, they are putting our community at risk and in that circumstance, we do need to look very closely at prescription medication as a result of what happened there.”

Seven vehicles were involved in the collision that killed Hannah Ferguson and Reagan Skinner.

He said the incident involving the Falkholt's was further proof there are drivers out there who should never be on the road.



“There is the capacity for the courts to obviously ban people for driving for up to 50 years. What we have to look at is what is going to really be affective in this regard,” he said.

At time of publishing, the number of lives lost on NSW roads alone this year stands at 24 - a significant increase on recorded road deaths this time last year. Transport NSW recorded just 14 road deaths for that period.

Last Tuesday, Hannah Ferguson and Reagan Skinner , both 19, joined the state’s road toll when a truck smashed into their car, which was stationary at roadworks on Newell Highway.

The young couple, who both studied at Charles Stuart University, died at the scene.

Ten others were injured in the crash, which involved seven other vehicles - a semi-trailer, a B-double, four sedans and a ute.

Among those injured was Jalirah, a two-year-old girl, who was travelling with four other members of her family.

Last Monday, a driver died after a fuel tanker and two other trucks collided on the M1 Pacific Motorway in the Lake Macquarie region.

Young couple Hannah Ferguson (left) and Reagan Skinner.

Two other men were killed in a head-on crash between a pair of trucks near Grafton in north-eastern NSW. The truck drivers were both in their 50s and died at the scene.

A national tragedy

The tragic impact of road fatalities have also been felt outside of NSW, with six people losing their lives in the first eight days in 2018 on Victoria’s roads.

A 58-year-old woman from NSW became the first person to die on Victoria’s roads this year, crashing her car after swerving to avoid a kangaroo in Victoria on New Year’s Day.

It was dawn on the first day of a new year when the car load of people swerved to miss the wild animal and crashed on Grampians Road in Illawarra.

Assistant Victoria Police Commissioner Doug Fryer said a number of the deaths involved speeds that were “inappropriate” and driver impairment of either drugs or alcohol.

A man in his 60s died on January 12 in a two-car head-on crash in Tasmania’s North-West – bringing the state’s road toll to three for 2018. The toll for the previous period was zero.

A woman became the first person to die on Queensland’s roads this year when she was struck while getting out of a car in south Brisbane on New Year’s Day.

Similarly, a female pedestrian became South Australia’s first road death for the year when she was hit by a car at Whyalla Playford on January 6.

Earlier this month, the South Australian government said it would sink $39 million into funding to fix nine block spots in a bid to curb pedestrian deaths.

The costs of tramaua

Late last year, the federal government extended its Black Spot Program and injected an additional $60 million per year from the 2021 to 2022 financial year onwards.

According to data from the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities, this figure builds on the $684.5 million investment from the 2012 to 2014 financial year to the 2020 to 2021 financial year.

In September 2017, the Australian Government announced the commencement of an inquiry into the National Road Safety Strategy 2011–2020.

Darren Chester, the former Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, commissioned the inquiry out of concern Australians are “too accepting” of road fatalities.

In a statement realised in September last year, Mr Chester said the inquiry would assess current actions and help find new ways to reduce the number of road fatalities and serious injuries.