Road safety rethink urged as deaths in 50km zones surge

Governments are being urged to bolster road safety measures as the number of deaths in local streets rise dramatically.

Roads Australia says an urgent review and more federal and state support for councils are needed as the nation veers away from achieving a key road toll target, echoing calls from road safety advocates.

After years of steady declines, transport ministers in 2021 set a goal of reducing annual road deaths by 50 per cent by 2030.

Road deaths have instead surged, rising 15 per cent above the ministers' 2020 baseline.

More than 155 road deaths have been recorded in the first seven weeks of 2026 - a rate that would eclipse the baseline again.

In a report released on Wednesday, Roads Australia spotlighted fatalities on roads with 50 km/h speed limits, which have risen significantly in recent years.

More than 150 people were killed in those zones in 2025, almost 20 per cent higher than the year prior.

Vulnerable road users were disproportionately affected, with pedestrian deaths up 13 per cent year-on-year in 2025 and cyclist deaths up 32 per cent.

The group, whose members include major road infrastructure players such as Downer, John Holland and Transurban, said the report showed a need to rethink how urban streets were designed and managed.

That included reducing some areas' limits to 40 or 30 km/h.

"These deaths are not just statistics. They are parents, friends and children who never made it home after an ordinary trip to the shops, school or work," Roads Australia chief executive Ehssan Veiszadeh said in a statement.

"Lower speeds dramatically improve a person's chance of survival and allow motorists to stop and avoid a crash entirely, making streets safer.

"If we are serious about meeting our 2030 road safety targets, we need to prioritise safer speeds and make our streets safer for everyone."

It comes after the Australasian College of Road Safety blamed a leadership failure for the rising road toll.

The sustained rise represents an unprecedented reversal of national progress, unseen since the 1930s, the research and advocacy group said in January.

"(It) highlights a systematic breakdown in accountability at a time when coordinated government action is critical to prevent people being killed or seriously injured on our roads," the centre said.