This suburban Melbourne road has just been named Australia's most dangerous

09/18/2024 08:42 PM

Newly publisheddata from a national insurance company has revealed the areas with the highest proportion of road accidents around Australia, with one suburban road in Melbourne recording the most road trauma in the country.

According to AAMI Insurance's 2024 Crash Index – which analysed more than 4.3 million motor claims from 2014 to 2023 – Plenty Road in the Melbourne suburb of Bundoora was identified as the top car crash site in Australia.

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The Hume Highway in Liverpool, New South Wales, followed in second, with the Bruce Highway in Queensland’s Rockhampton in third.

Meanwhile, the Albany Highway in Cannington, Western Australia, ranked fourth, and Canberra Avenue in Fyshwick, ACT, came in fifth.

Rounding out the list of the nation’s eight most dangerous roads was Marion Road in Marion, South Australia, in sixth, Sandy Bay Road in Sandy Bay, Tasmania, in seventh, and the Stuart Highway in Darwin, Northern Territory, ranked eighth.

The news comes after Victoria recently recorded an increase in road fatalities in comparison to 2023 data.

According to the latest road toll data gathered by the Bureau of Infrastructure and Research Economics (BITRE), Victoria recorded a 10.7 per cent increase in road fatalities – from 272 in 2023 to 301 in 2024 – in the 12 months leading up to August.

NSW experienced a 7.1 per cent surge in road fatalities in the same time period, from 323 in 2023 to 346 in 2024.

Most notably, the Northern Territory recorded a 288 per cent increase in road deaths from 2023 to 2024, per BITRE.

Leah James, AAMI's Motor Claims Manager, said the roads identified in the data all shared similar features.

"The number one crash hotspots in each state and territory are all notorious for road accidents and share similar attributes of being busy major roads, or main thoroughfares through industrial, educational, shopping centre precincts or central business districts," James said in a media statement.

"In all states, except for Tasmania, the number one hotspot has held the top position in their state for more than five of the past 10 years, indicating that not only are these roads busy, but also dangerous," she added.

Over the past 10 years, the insurance company identified that "nose-to-tail crashes" were the most common road accident, making up 26 per cent of claims, while failing to give way to other drivers was also frequent, contributing to 19 per cent of accident claims.

Judging by the types of car accidents recorded in the study, James said Australian drivers "have a propensity to tailgate other drivers and drive distracted".

Surprisingly, accidentally damaging parked vehicles was the third most common road accident identified in the data at 17 per cent.

According to AAMI's 2024 Crash Index, the worst time for car crashes "has not changed over the past 10 years", with early afternoons between 1:00pm-4:30pm ranking first, followed by mornings between 9:30am-1:00pm, and then late afternoon from 4:30pm-8:00pm.

"Our data has shown that afternoons are prime time for collisions across the country," James said.

"This coincides with school pick up – and is generally a time when the roads are busy, patience is wearing thin, drivers are tired from the day, and [are] racing to either get home or to get to their next destination.

"This is when drivers need to have their wits about them and be vigilant behind the wheel, to avoid those bumper-to-bumper collisions or an accident involving a child," she added.

Additionally, AAMI found that Friday was the most dangerous day of the week, with 16 per cent of car crashes occurring at the end of the work week.

The insurance company's data also identified males are most likely to be involved in an accident at 54 per cent, with drivers aged 65 years old and above recording the highest frequency of car crashes at 26 per cent.

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