A Coalition government would tip $6 million into a new national road crash investigation pilot, with the goal of learning from truck and car accidents.
The three-year trial, one of a suite of road safety election policies the Coalition announced late last week, would be overseen by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), and mark a major shake-up in how serious crashes are investigated.
Currently trusted for its no-blame investigations into air, rail and maritime incidents, the ATSB has never touched the road sector – until now.
Unlike police or workplace safety investigations, which often revolve around who’s at fault, the proposed ATSB road crash investigations would aim to dig into systemic causes – poor road design, vehicle safety failures, or policy gaps that contribute to crashes.
“There is a significant gap in the knowledge of the causes of crashes, which must be closed,” the Coalition said in its policy announcement.
The trucking industry and road safety experts have long called for better national data and analysis to inform smarter decisions, especially in heavy vehicle transport where lives, livelihoods, and freight flow are on the line.
“What this model offers is something we don’t have now — a way to learn from serious incidents without waiting years for a coronial finding, or relying on incomplete evidence filtered through a legal lens,” wrote compliance expert Ray Hassall in a recent column for Big Rigs on the subject.
“It also creates the possibility of national thematic reviews — not just of individual crashes, but of trends like fatigue-related incidents, regional road conditions, or the role of subcontracting in safety failures.
“That kind of insight could help governments, planners, insurers and operators invest in smarter solutions — and save lives.”
If elected on May 3, the Coalition plans to work with the states and territories to get the pilot up and running within the first year of government.
Countries like the US, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands have already embraced the no-fault investigation model for road incidents – and seen road toll reductions as a result.
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