Safety strategy to stop tourists dying on Australian roads

The good news is that, for all the complaints and badmouthing, Australia has a pretty decent hospital system. The bad news is that more New Zealanders than we would like will end up in it this year, victims of an increasing toll of road accidents involving foreign tourists.

Most of the Kiwis will go home and, if need be, lodge claims with the Accident Compensation Commission. No one tells them that they can sue for far greater amounts under Australian law, as did a German woman awarded A$4.5 million ($5 million) for horrendous injuries suffered in an accident in far north Queensland.

Australian authorities have become so worried by the number of overseas visitors killed and injured on the nation's roads that they have formed a separate national road safety strategy for tourists, part of a campaign that in most other areas has pulled down the rate of serious accidents: Australian roads now rank 10th-safest among 25 OECD countries (New Zealand sits at 14).

The problem is that tourists come to a country that is not only unfamiliar and governed by different road rules, but which is also vast almost beyond belief - Queensland is roughly 6 1/2 times the size of New Zealand, and Western Australia runs almost 2400km from top to bottom - and is populated by tens of millions of large, wild animals.

In the Outback, road trains up to 50m long roar down dangerously narrow roads. And, to be unkind, the locals can often be less than sympathetic to the confused or stressed. A survey by insurer AAMI this week reported a nation of ill-mannered, self-centred drivers, although experience suggests many Kiwis would feel right at home.

Whatever the reasons, Australian roads can be deadly. ACC reports that 1837 New Zealanders were killed and another 5031 injured overseas between July 1994 and March this year, figures that, while not identifying the specific Australian toll, suggest travel can be hazardous.

Given that Tourism Australia figures show New Zealanders made 930,000 visits to Australia in the past financial year, a large proportion of those reported to ACC are likely to have met their fate in Australia.

Indeed, Tom Goudkamp, a personal injuries specialist with Sydney law firm Stacks Goudkamp and president of the Australian Lawyers Alliance, goes so far as to say there is a great probability many of those incidents will have occurred in Australia.

Goudkamp's interest lies in the other probability: that most of the Kiwis involved in accidents in Australia are not aware that they can sue for damages under Australian law, rather than claim only such ACC entitlements as income replacement, case management, medical and other care and rehabilitation services.

Some indication of the toll comes from New South Wales Health Department figures reporting the country of birth of people admitted to the state's hospitals last year.

Of 136,341 overseas-born injury patients, 10,361 were Kiwis, a number eclipsed only by Britons. In Queensland, where New Zealand is consistently one of the top-three sources of tourists, 83 overseas visitors were killed in road accidents in the decade to 2002, a further 1139 admitted to hospital, and another 2600 treated for lesser injuries.

In NSW, official figures show 22 foreign visitors were killed and 243 injured on the state's roads between 1998 and 2002. In the same period 10 died and 475 were injured - 149 seriously - in Victoria.

But the real toll is probably higher, according to a joint study by the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety, the Queensland Government and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau that formed the basis for the new road safety strategy for tourists.

In Queensland, for example, statistics include international victims only if the driver was a tourist. If a local was driving a vehicle in which foreigners were killed or injured, the victims are not recorded among the international toll.

It remains difficult to put a number on how many international visitors are involved in Australian road crashes, the study says. At a national level, and in most jurisdictions, the only international visitors specifically identified are those involved in crashes as drivers or riders of motor vehicles.

Limited information is available about other types of international road users involved in crashes, such as pedestrians and passengers.

Australia is worried about this. For the past few decades, the nation has spent vast amounts of time, energy and money in bringing down a road toll that since cars first appeared has claimed more than 171,000 lives: a greater toll than that of all the wars in which Australia has fought. Last year almost 1600 died in 1458 road crashes.

The national road safety strategy aims to cut the death rate by 40 per cent by the end of this decade, with similar reductions in the number and severity of injuries.

Concerned that the toll was not being reduced fast enough, the latest action plan focused more closely on speed, the state of roads, the influence of alcohol, drugs and fatigue on drivers, the safety of vehicles, and driver licensing.

In the past two years, 50km/h speed limits have appeared in Australian towns and cities, the use of red light and speed cameras has increased - in Victoria this was associated with a 28 per cent fall in deaths - hundreds of millions of dollars have been earmarked for accident black spots, a new safety strategy for heavy vehicles was launched, and moves begun to improve safety at level crossings.

All this is bearing fruit. Since 1999 road deaths have decreased by an average of 2 per cent a year, although success varies across different states and there were more deaths among drivers and motorcycle and bike riders last year.

For tourists, Australian roads remain as dangerous as ever. Many arrive after long flights from the Northern Hemisphere, hire cars or camper vans, and head off into unfamiliar and dangerous country.

Adventure holidays appear to be increasing the risk: the biggest cause of death for Americans here are road accidents and drowning.

The roads themselves can be killers. In rural and Outback Australia, gravel roads, or single-lane blacktop roads, are common. Many have rough or crumbling shoulders, which the NSW motorists' organisation NRMA says are responsible for many single-vehicle accidents.

Others can be deadly because of scant room to avoid oncoming traffic - especially 50m road trains travelling at high speed.

Other dangers include fatigue - a real killer on Australia's vast, featureless, stretches of road - flash floods, dust and poor preparation for travel in hot, dry and remote areas.

And there is always livestock: not only the cattle and sheep New Zealanders are familiar with, but kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, foxes, donkeys, horses and even camels.

Kangaroos are especially deadly, particularly in the dark. They are lighting-fast and unpredictable, and they are everywhere, in large numbers. On one 20km stretch of road near the Snowy Mountains about 400 big Eastern Greys were reported killed in just 10 months.

The roo danger is not just in the bush. An NRMA report found that in Canberra last year more than 600 accidents involved kangaroos. Across Australia, drivers hit 13,000 roos, 800 cows and horses, 435 wombats, 210 foxes and 3500 sheep, dogs, cats and other animals.

But where there is fault, there is also the potential for compensation. Unlike New Zealand, where the ACC rules, Australia is a highly litigious nation where road accident victims regularly sue.

Goudkamp, who has represented injured tourists, says Kiwis should bear in mind that once they are at home cost, jurisdiction, lack of legal advice on Australian law, and inconvenience all preclude them from seeking redress.

Many insured people are eligible to apply for compensation, but the insurance companies are only too keen to repatriate them without advising them of their entitlements.

That A$4.5 million ($5 million) mentioned earlier was a case Goudkamp recently won on appeal for a German tourist left a quadriplegic after a Queensland court found an Outback road was inadequately signposted. Road accident victims from Lapland, Ireland and Britain have won other claims, sometimes involving hearings overseas.

Under Australian law, tourists can sue through local courts provided they lodge notice of claim within six months and the case starts within three years. Claims can cover pain and suffering, medical and other out-of-pocket expenses, future medical expenses, loss of income, the value of voluntary care or the cost of commercial care, special aids and equipment, loss of superannuation benefits and home and transport modifications.

Family members suffering trauma, or those who were financially dependent on the victim can also claim in fatal accidents.