Australia

From 1970 until 2002 the fatality rate dropped from 30.4 to 8.8 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. This reduction has been achieved in spite of a huge increase in motor vehicle use. From 1970 to 2002, the fatality rate per 10,000 registered vehicles has dropped from 8.0 to 1.4. In terms of 100 million vehicle-kilometres travelled the fatality rate has dropped from 4.4 in 1970 to 1.0 in 2000.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau http://www.atsb.gov.au/ (ATSB) is an operationally independent body within the Federal Department of Transport and Regional Services and is Australia’s prime agency for transport safety investigations. The bureau is entirely separate from transport regulators and service providers. The ATSB’s objective is safe transport. Its mission is to maintain and improve transport safety and public confidence through excellence in:

• The National Road Safety Strategy 2001–2010 notes that ITS has considerable potential to improve road safety, particularly in the longer term. Although the long-term potential of such systems may be large, the strategy document made cautious assumptions about the fatality reductions that could be achieved by 2010 from such systems. Only 2 per cent of the targeted 40 per cent reduction in fatalities by 2010 was expected to be due to ITS. These benefits were expected to be provided by seat belt interlocks/warning devices (introduced in new vehicles from 2005) and alcohol interlocks (fitted to cars of convicted drink-drivers for two years). (Read more on) http://www.atsb.gov.au/road/rsia/rsia.pdf
• ARRB http://www.arrb.org.au/ Transport Research is the leading Australian provider of value-added research and technical services addressing transport problems. ARRB Transport Research can assist in the independent assessment of vehicle innovations ranging from changes in vehicle structure to ITS applications.
• ITS Australia http://www.its-australia.com.au/ An Australian organisation of industries and authorities working on developing ITS activities in Australia.
• Monash University, Accident Research Centre  The Accident Research Centre is a leading road safety and injury prevention research organisation in Australia. http://www.general.monash.edu.au/muarc/
• Roads and Traffic Authority, New South Wales http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/ The RTA is responsible for promoting road safety and traffic management, driver licensing and vehicle registration in New South Wales.
• Institute of Transport Studies http://www.its.usyd.edu.au/welcome.asp