Western Australia's road toll for the year is at a six-year high, prompting calls for a fundamental change to the state's road safety culture.
The preliminary road toll for 2022 stands at 174 deaths, including 112 in regional areas and 62 in the metropolitan area.
Road Safety Commissioner Adrian Warner said the year was ending with too many families, friends and communities suffering in grief.
"I want to look back on 2023 with fundamentally different numbers from a road safety point of view," Mr Warner said.
"The only acceptable number is zero deaths."
Mr Warner described 2022 as "anything but a good year" in terms of road safety.
"As a community we have to have a very serious conversation about our road trauma, road toll and what level of road trauma is acceptable.
"Our road culture is essentially saying 'it's okay for 174 people to die each year on our roads'. It's not acceptable. It's not okay. And we all have something to do about that."
New year's resolution plea
He is asking every Western Australian to add to their new year's resolution list one small, achievable change in their driving habits to make every journey safer.
"We know that a lot of small changes can add up to a huge impact in terms of road toll," Mr Warner said.
That could be taking more time to plan a journey, slowing down, or resting more.
At least 20 of the deaths this year involved people not wearing seatbelts or not wearing them properly.
"A small change in your driving habit could be as simple as wearing your seatbelt," he said.
"Fifty years after we made seatbelts compulsorily we still have people dying on our roads in crashes not wearing a seatbelt. Twenty people so far this year.
"It's a no brainer for me."
Safer cars reduce injuries
The Road Safety Commission wants the law changed in WA so cameras can be used to catch people not wearing their seatbelt or on their mobile phone while driving.
He said it immediately reduced those offences by 10 per cent when it was introduced in Queensland.
The number of serious injuries on WA roads reduced by seven per cent compared with the previous five-year average.
Mr Warner said that was largely due to safer cars.
The road toll figures have been released a week after Cindy Braddock, 25, and Jake Day, 28, were killed when their car rolled just a few kilometres from home in WA's Wheatbelt, leaving their three children stranded for more than two days.
It is the same region where 34-year-old Hannah Fraser, a mother-of-six, was killed in October when her car and a truck collided.
"People who live in the regions are exposed to a higher risk. They travel more often, for longer distances, at higher speeds," Mr Warner said.
