The Northern Territory has been named the deadliest place to drive in Australia in a new study that found the ACT and NSW have the safest roads by far. In a twist, the results from insurance giant iSelect found that falling crash rates don’t necessarily make for an overall lower risk for motorists.

The research – which also came up with ratings for the US and UK – combined crash and fatality data with weather conditions and the state of road infrastructure to come up with a “total danger score”, and the Territory gapped the rest of the country by some margin.

Sturt Highway
3

Its crash rate of 14.21 per 100,000 people was far above that of the next-worst result in that category, Tasmania’s mark of 7.43. However, collisions in the NT were down 36.7 per cent year on year, while the Apple Isle recorded a shocking increase of 38.7 per cent.

The Top End’s crash risk score of 75 and weather risk score of 72.07 were also easily the worst marks recorded in the study and made big contributions to its total danger score of 60.14 – again, far ahead of the next-worst spot, WA, with 46.33.

In contrast, the ACT had a total danger score of just 28.35, driven by its remarkably low crash rate of 1.85, although its infrastructure is lacking with a risk score of 69.12. NSW was second-safest with a total danger score of 28.44.

Victoria was the fifth-most dangerous driving spot in last year’s study, and it has climbed to third this year. That’s largely down to its poor infrastructure, which WhichCar by Wheels has reported on recently. The parlous state of Vic’s roads saw it get the worst infrastructure risk score at 70.23, significantly worse than its Queensland with 60.02.

1

The Sunshine State was the fourth-most dangerous place in the country for motorists, followed by Tassie, South Australia, then NSW and the ACT. 

According to iSelect, “The findings highlight how assessing road risk involves more than considering historical crashes alone. A location may experience improving crash figures while still presenting challenging driving conditions because of weather or characteristics of its road network.”

The NT’s result is also far worse than the most dangerous spot in the USA, Mississippi, with a total danger rating of 57.43. Bradford, the riskiest place to drive in the UK, also lagged behind the Top End with a mark of 60.52.