Australian road toll on track for highest level since 2010

More Australians are being killed on our roads, according to the latest figures, which show the national road toll is on track to reach its highest level since 2010, prompting calls for more effective road safety data and funding – and smaller vehicles.

National Road Safety Data Hub figures showed 123 deaths across the country in September 2026, a 25.5 per cent year-on-year increase. There were 1001 deaths between January and September, up from 973 over the same period in 2025.

The September result was 17.8 per cent higher than the average for that month over the previous five years.

While deaths per 100,000 people over the 12 months to September fell by 1.3 per cent to 4.8, vulnerable road user deaths increased 1.8 per cent to 516.

Cyclist deaths alone increased 35 per cent compared with the previous 12 months.

Australia’s annual road toll has increased every year since 2020, rising from 1097 that year to 1306 in 2025. Last year’s result was the worst since 2010, when 1353 people were killed.

Road deaths nationally have risen 21.6 per cent since January 2021, pushing Australia further off course to meet the National Road Safety Strategy’s target of fewer than 571 deaths annually by 2030 – a reduction of at least 50 per cent from the 2018–2020 average.

“Something is changing, and not for the better,” Australian Automobile Association (AAA) managing director Michael Bradley told the ABC.

“Cars have never been safer, we're spending a huge amount of money on roads, yet more people are dying.

“It's pretty confounding, and it’s a trend we haven't seen for decades.”

Mr Bradley told the ABC more transparent data was required to address the trend.

“We need to make sure money is being directed where it should be, and we need to make sure interventions or policies that work are being proliferated, because if it’s not the data that’s driving the spending, what is?”

“At the end of the day there’s too much speculation and not enough evidence-based policy,” the AAA boss said.

“Canberra is distributing billions of dollars, and we need to make sure money is being directed to what is actually working.”

The ABC report identified drug-impaired driving and heavier vehicles as factors contributing to vulnerable road user deaths.

“If we do not regulate, and if we do not make incentives for people to buy more reasonable sized cars, this is going to continue,” University of Melbourne associate professor Milad Haghani told the ABC.

“What we end up with is an ecosystem that is increasingly risky to pedestrians and cyclists.”

The figures also come as parts of the country grapple with poor road maintenance, including the controversy surrounding potholes in Victoria, an issue raised ahead of next month’s state election.

MORE: Australia's top motoring body slams federal government for road safety failures after death toll rises again