Aboriginal road users – differences

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The patterns of road deaths and injuries of Aboriginal men and women are different to those of non-Aboriginal men and women. The patterns are also different between Aboriginal men, Aboriginal women and Aboriginal children.

By examining these differences, we may find ways to help reduce the rate of deaths and injuries in the Aboriginal community.

Compare the graphs below.

The first shows the number of Aboriginal people who were badly injured because of a road crash – grouped by their age and by their gender.

Graph 1 – Age-sex distribution of Aboriginal road crash casualties, 1997-2001

The next is for non-Aboriginal people.

Graph 2 – Age-sex distribution of non-Aboriginal road crash casualties, 1997-2001


What are the differences?

• Compared with non-Aboriginal people, Aboriginal road casualties tended to be younger, with most between age 5 to 34 but very few above age 60
• Non-Aboriginal male casualties tended to peak at around the 10-29 year age groups, but the peak for Aboriginal males tended to be spread across the 10-34 age groups
• Aboriginal female casualties tended to peak across the 15 to 44 year age groups compared to non-Aboriginal female casualties who tended to peak at 20 to 29 years.

Higher casualty rates
For almost all ages, the casualty rates per 100,000 population between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal population show higher Aboriginal casualties.

Graph 3 – Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal age-specific road crash casualty rates, 1997-2001

Differences

• The casualty rates for Aboriginal children under 5 years and for Aboriginal people between 30-49 and 55-64 years were more than twice that of non-Aboriginal people in these age groups
• The casualty rate for Aboriginal people is higher for men than women, as it is for the non-Aboriginal population
• Aboriginal men need to be hospitalised at nearly twice the rate as non-Aboriginal men.

Graph 4 – Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal male/female casualty rates, 1997-2001

Other Important Information
Aboriginal Road Crash Fatalities (29 kb)