The January 2015 road toll data has been released by the Department of Infrastructure and Transport’s Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics. The number of bicycle riders killed on our roads in the 12 months to January 2015 declined to 45. No bicycle riders were killed on our roads in Western Australia but we lost three fellow riders in January 2015 with fatalities in the ACT, South Australia and Victoria.

The Department of Infrastructure and Transport’s Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics publishes monthly, a summary report on road deaths in Australia. This issue is dated January 2015. The summary report is available from my Dropbox.

Fatalities Breakdown

The break down of those fatalities are taken from the Australian Roads Deaths Database.

Monday Afternoon – One fatality – Multiple Vehicle – SA

Wednesday Morning – One fatality – Multiple Vehicle – VIC

Thursday Morning – One fatality – Single Vehicle – ACT

Forty-five bicycle riders, (people: Mums, Dads, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters) have died on our roads during the past 12 months to January 2015. Families suffering the grief of lost ones. How many more families need to suffer before we take responsibility?

Forty-five bicycle riders killed is at least an improvement over the previous 12 months to January 2014 and a decline of 6.3%, but the average trend change per year still continues to get worse at 7.9%, an increase of .04%.

Road Toll Overall

Whilst my interest here is focused on the outcomes for bicycle riders, there were 108 road deaths in January 2015, an increase in comparison to January 2014 when 98 people where killed. For the 12 months ended January 2015, 1,188 people have died on our roads. Of those 1,188, 148 were pedestrians, 45 were bicycle riders (a decrease of three over the previous 12 months), 205 were motorcyclists and 765 were motor vehicle occupants. Our thoughts are with their families. All these deaths could have been avoided.

National Trends – Bad for Bicycle Riders

While the average trend change for drivers continues to decline (-2.8% and -7.1% respectively) which is a good thing, for bicycle riders the trend is still upwards and increasing at 7.9% per year. We just cannot seem to get it right. Why do we keep killing vulnerable road users? Blaming cyclist is not the answer either – red light jumping is not killing bicycle riders; demanding bicycle riders earn respect is no justification for not ensuring their use of the road is accepted. It is simply not okay to kill and injury others, period and we need to make this clear as a society, we need a Police force and a judiciary that understands this.

Our National Road Safety Strategy is continuing to fail our most vulnerable road users, people, yes cyclists are people, people who choose to ride bicycles.

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