The State Government has committed to a multi-million-dollar partnership with the University of Adelaide’s Centre for Automotive Safety Research (CASR), funding road safety research until at least 2025.
CASR will receive a $1.5 million contribution from the State Government annually until 2025. It extends the partnership between CASR and the State Government, which has been in place for more than 20 years.
An international leader in road safety research, CASR has provided independent advice and research on road safety initiatives to the State Government since 2002.
Over the next three years, CASR will focus its research on cost effective road improvements, Aboriginal road safety, improving road user behaviour and driver fatigue.
The Malinauskas Labor Government’s commitment to funding priority road safety research forms part of South Australia’s recently launched Road Safety Action Plan 2023-2025.
Quotes
Attributable to Joe Szakacs
South Australia has made substantial gains in reducing deaths and serious injuries on our roads since the early 1970s, when more than 300 people were killed and 3,500 were seriously injured each year.
In 2022, there were 71 lives lost and about 700 serious injuries. This reduction has been achieved despite an increase in the number of people and vehicles using our roads.
But no death or serious injury on our roads is acceptable or inevitable – that’s why the Malinauskas Labor Government is taking necessary steps to action South Australia’s Road Safety Action Plan 2023-2025.
By committing to a longer-term contribution to the state’s premier Centre for Automotive Safety Research, my government is taking significant steps to reduce deaths and serious injuries on South Australian roads.
Every death on our road is a tragedy. How we plan and build our road infrastructure, the vehicles people drive and improving road user behaviour is crucial to reducing road trauma.
By working together with the Centre for Automotive Safety Research, we can achieve lasting change and create a safer road environment which protects South Australia’s road users, including the most vulnerable members of our community.
Attributable to Director, Centre for Automotive Safety Research Associate Professor Jeremy Woolley
The Centre for Automotive Safety Research is proud of its road safety legacy in South Australia and is excited to be able continue its long relationship with the South Australian Government to discover ways to save lives and reduce harm from road use.
The support we receive from the government will allow CASR to continue to add new tools to the road safety toolkit.
Road crashes create a ripple effect through all our communities and sadly most of us will know of someone whose life has changed forever due to a split-second event.
Solving this problem is not impossible but will take a sustained effort from governments, organisations and individuals to embrace the change required and no longer tolerate practices that place people at risk.
There is nothing inevitable about injuries from road crashes, they are manageable and preventable. While we often focus on past trauma, we also need to consider that almost 1000 more South Australians are likely to be killed on our roads over the next decade unless something changes.
