Policing Rural Highway in South Australia

Since the early 1970?s when there were nearly 400 persons killed and more than 4000 people seriously injured on South Australian roads, there has been a substantial decline in the number of casualties. This has occurred despite an increase in the population and vehicles. The National Road Safety Strategy 2001-2010 set the target of a 40% reduction in road fatalities by the end of 2010.

In 2007 61% of all fatalities and 42.5% of serious injuries occurred on rural roads. In May 2006 SAPOL launched the South Australia Police Road Safety Strategy 2006-2010 which aims to increase the safety of all road users by dramatically reducing death and injury on SA roads. The challenge by 2010 is to reduce road fatalities to less than 90 persons per year and serious injuries to less than 1000 per year.