Australia's worst roads revealed

A report issued by the Australian Automobile Association has listed the worst “link” roads in the country, saying that almost one in five highways rate as “high risk.”

The disturbing report shows that, although there has been a six per cent improvement in the risk ratings since the last report issued in 2007, the smaller “link roads” are over-represented in the statistics.

“A wide range of relatively low-cost treatments are available to improve the safety of rural roads and these include removing roadside hazards or protecting them with barriers, providing or sealing shoulders and installing tactile edge lines to alert drivers who stray off the road,” said AAA executive director Andrew McKellar.

The report is made by the Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP) and analyses the “road safety risk of the national highway network based on real-life traffic, death and serious injury statistics.”

The survey embraced 20,000km of the national highway network, which carries more than 15 per cent of national road traffic. According to the report, “In 2005-2009, 1170 people died on those roads surveyed compared to 1210 in the previous five year – a reduction of three per cent.”

Similarly, 17 per cent of national highways are rated as high risk in the most recent survey, compared to 23 per cent in the 2007 report.

23 per cent of national highways now rate as low risk – an improvement of eight per cent over 2007.

“Some progress has been achieved to improve the national highway network and it is encouraging to see the percentage of low risk roads has increased and those rated as high risk has decreased,” Mr McKellar says.

No state emerges unscathed in the report, although South Australia and the ACT had no roads “that could be categorised in the worst category.” NSW and Queensland have greater numbers of “worst” link roads categorised as medium-high or high-risk than Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

Not surprisingly, sections of the notorious Pacific highway in NSW are included, as are sections of Queensland’s Bruce highway, while Victoria’s Princes highway in the Gippsland region and sections of WA’s Great Eastern highway are also mentioned. Sections of Tasmania’s Midland, Bass, East Tamar and Brooker highways and Northern Territory’s Stuart highway also make the list.

“Safe roads are a vital component of reducing the road toll and there are still too many people being killed or injured in crashes because of poor road design, poor maintenance and roadside hazards," Mr McKellar said.

Australia’s national road networks are overseen by state authorities working in conjunction with local councils to maintain, review and upgrade road conditions.

For more detailed information on Australia’s worst roads, go to the AAA website.