Fatal crashes among cyclists and elderly drivers have emerged as an “area of concern” for Australia’s road authorities.

An annual report into the road toll released by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics found that deaths among drivers aged 65 and over rose to 23 per cent between 2012 and 2013, while cyclist deaths increased by 51.5 per cent in the same period.

Elderly drivers are over-represented in fatal collisions, forming 14 per cent of the population yet 23 per cent of fatal crashes.

The news comes as authorities celebrate a 25 per cent reduction in the road toll over the last 10 years.

Jamie Briggs, assistant minister for infrastructure and regional development, said the 25 per cent reduction was the result of significant investment on the part of governments.

Improvements to vehicle safety have helped lower the road toll.

“There is no single reason for the downward trend in road fatalities,” Mr Briggs said.

“However, ongoing investment in the quality of our road infrastructure and vast improvements in vehicle safety across Australia in the last decade has made a significant contribution to achieving these encouraging results.”

Australian Automobile Association chief Andrew McKellar agreed that there had been “a substantial effort by governments” to address the road toll, and added that advances in safety technology in new cars may also have had a significant effect

“There's no doubt that things like electronic stability control do make a difference when it comes to safety,” he said.

Improvements to vehicle safety have helped lower the road toll.

“The more widespread evidence of things like curtain airbags have helped to reduce risk in side collisions or collisions with obstacles on the sides of the road.

“All of that is going to have had an impact.”

The BITRE report examined road deaths from 2003, when Australia’s most popular car was Holden’s VY Commodore, which had a basic safety suite that was limited to anti-lock brakes and an airbag each for the driver and front passenger.

Ten years later, Toyota’s Corolla was the most popular model, featuring more sophisticated technology including stability control, electronic brake force distribution, and seven airbags spread throughout the cabin.

Mr McKellar says the road toll will continue to drop as a result of driver education, improved infrastructure, and the emergence of active safety technology that allows cars to prevent an accident without driver input.

“We will see further gains in the future as active braking technologies and fatigue monitoring systems, those sorts of things become more and more prevalent,” he said.

“We’ve seen improvements and we will see further improvements with regard to technology.”

The falling road toll lags behind the National Road Safety Strategy target of a 30 per cent reduction in road deaths between 2011 and 2020.

Improvements to vehicle safety have helped lower the road toll.

Mr McKellar, who also serves on the board of the Australian New Car Assessment Program crash-testing body, said authorities must address “areas of concern”.

“The emerging area of concern is around cyclists and cyclists safety,” he said.

“We have seen a significant increase in the number of cyclists killed and injured on Australian roads.

“Over the past year to the March quarter, 60 cyclists have died, that is an increase of 40 per cent over that period for the last 12 months.

“That is a marked step backwards.”