FED: Holiday road toll soars after three year drop
03 Jan 2009 4:54 PM
Subject: FED: Holiday road toll soars after three year drop FED: Holiday road toll soars after three year drop EDS: Corrects earlier figure for Queensland 2007/08 road toll from five to four and corrects earlier figure for WA 2007/08 figure from seven to 11.
Hopes that Australia's holiday road toll would continue to decline have been dashed after 57 people lost their lives over the Christmas-New Year period.
Holiday road deaths have been on the decline since the 2005-06 period peak of 78 and dropped to a low of 46 for the 2007-08 Christmas/New Year's period.
But the 2008-09 holiday road toll period .. which extended from December 19 to January 2 .. was bad news for Victoria .. Queensland .. New South Wales and Western Australia.
Victoria topped the list for a second consecutive year with 16 deaths .. one less than last year .. while Queensland came in second with 13 holiday road deaths .. more than treble last year's total of four.
NSW saw 11 fatalities during the holiday period .. which included the death of an 18-year-old after he fell from the tray of a ute in the early hours of New Year's Day.
Western Australia has ended the holiday road toll period with 10 deaths .. one less than last year but the highest per capita of any state or territory.
Five people died on roads in the Northern Territory .. a five-fold increase on the previous three years.
Only one person was killed in South Australia .. the same for Tasmania and the ACT remained fatality free.
(EDS: National Christmas holiday road toll figures are for the period 0001 December 19 to 2359 January 2. Some states and territories have different periods.)
AAP RTV vpm/crh
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FED: Holiday road toll soars after three year drop