Quarterly heavy vehicle road deaths

Key statistics

During the 12 months ending September 2024, 154 people died in crashes involving heavy trucks. There were 82 deaths in crashes involving articulated trucks and 77 deaths in crashes involving heavy rigid trucks.  

Fatalities in crashes involving heavy trucks: 

• decreased by 17.6% when compared with the previous 12-month period
• decreased by an average of 9.5% per year over the 3 years to September 2024

Fatalities in crashes involving articulated trucks: 

• decreased by 20.4% when compared with the previous 12-month period
• decreased by an average of 4.0% per year over the 3 years to September 2024

 Fatalities in crashes involving heavy rigid trucks:  

• decreased by 17.2% when compared with the previous 12-month period
• decreased by an average of 13.5% per year over the 3 years to September 2024. 

During the 12 months to September 2024, 16 people died in crashes involving buses.  

Fatalities in crashes involving buses: 

• decreased by 11.1% when compared with the previous 12-month period  

• decreased by an average of 5.7% per year over the 3 years to September 2024. 

   

Quarterly counts of deaths in crashes involving heavy vehicles, with trends, September 2016 to September 2024 

Definitions

Articulated truck

A motor vehicle primarily for load carrying, consisting of a prime mover that has no significant load carrying area but with a turntable device which can be linked to one or more trailers.

Heavy rigid truck

A motor vehicle of GVM greater than 4.5 tonnes constructed with a load carrying area. Includes a rigid truck with a tow bar, draw bar or other non-articulated coupling on the rear of the vehicle.

Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM)

Tare weight (i.e. unladen weight) of the motor vehicle plus its maximum carrying capacity excluding trailers.

Bus

A motor vehicle constructed for the carriage of passengers which has at least 10 seats, including the driver's seat.

Crash

Any apparently unpremeditated event reported to police, or other relevant authority, and resulting in death, injury or property damage attributable to the movement of a road vehicle on a public road

Road death or fatality

A person who dies within 30 days of a crash as a result of injuries received in that crash.

Fatal crash

A crash for which there is at least one death.

Preliminary data

Data for recent months are preliminary and subject to revision.

Estimation of three year trends

In this bulletin, the figures for the 'Average annual per cent change over 3 years' are calculated by fitting an exponential trend line to the last three data points. The Excel function LOGEST performs the fit. The resulting trend line represents a constant annual percent change over the period. (Note: when fitted to a series containing small numbers, this may not be a reliable indicator of a stable trend.)

Smooth trend lines

Whittaker-Henderson smoothers with a value of 80 for the smoothing parameter. The application R (package pracma) is used.

About the data

Data for this report is sourced from the Australian Road Deaths Database(Opens in a new tab/window) (ARDD).  

View historical quarterly heavy vehicle road deaths.(Opens in a new tab/window)

Limitations  

In general, a heavy truck as identified in the ARDD is a freight-carrying vehicle with a gross vehicle mass of over 4.5 tonnes. We use the identification of heavy trucks as supplied by the states and territories, which can vary.