Researchers suggest drivers are being distracted by the pandemic and everything else going on in the world rather than road rules as most countries — including Australia — record stable or increased fatalities.
Far North Queensland has recorded its worst start to the year for road safety in recent memory, and driver distraction is being considered as a possible cause.
Since the beginning of the year, 12 people have died on the region's roads — twice the number of deaths recorded in the same period in 2021, and four times more than in 2020.
On Monday alone, three people died in separate incidents
Queensland University of Technology associate professor and Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety deputy director Mark King said global statistics showed the coronavirus pandemic appeared to be impacting the way people drive.
"Even with the decrease with the amount of traffic on the road due to lockdowns, there's actually been in most countries either the same amount of fatalities or an increase," Dr King said.
He said one possible explanation was that drivers were distracted by everything else going on in the world.
"When people are facing a lot of uncertainty, in the chance of contracting coronavirus and also loss of jobs and things like that, there's a tendency to be less worried about obeying the road rules — less concerned about what might happen," he said.
Only fatalities rising
Dr King said data showed December tended to be the deadliest month on all Australian roads, but that was usually attributed to an increase in the number of cars on the road above any other factors.
"There's been a lot of work done over the years looking at what happens around Christmas and Easter when people are driving away and might not have been driving very far for quite a while," he said.
"What you find is more of a shift in where crashes are occurring, where they're more likely to be on the open road, rather than an actual significant increase in number."
Dr King said a curious insight from the crash data available was that hospitalisations as a result of road crashes in Far North Queensland were not rising at the same rate as fatalities.
"When you have fatalities increasing by more than the hospitalised casualties, that's quite often symptomatic of the risk factors being things like speeding in particular and drink driving," he said.
"Those are obviously much more likely to be fatal than other types of offences."
