Explore our road safety data
Road safety performance
Learn how Transurban implements integrated, safe-system strategies and solutions to reduce incidents on our roads
Road incidents
Access data on the most common incidents on Transurban’s roads and learn how we use data to improve road safety
Research
Explore a range of safety research findings and see how technology and data are enhancing road safety performance
Our integrated road safety approach
Transurban adopted the safe system road safety approach in 2016. This approach, used by governments, transport operators and other agencies around the world, considers all causes of crashes together. This approach also recognises that collective effort is needed to improve safety, and advocates for integrated solutions encompassing:
Safe speeds
Safe cars
Safe roads
Safe road users
Safe crash responses
The safe system’s principles and targets inform our operations and performance measures, including working towards achieving our ultimate target of zero fatalities and life-changing injuries on our roads.
Road safety action plans
Every state we operate in has its own road safety action plan, detailing everything we need to do each year to continue improving the safety of all our roads. We develop these plans using the safe system approach, with actions developed collaboratively by our engineering and design, technology, communications, customer support, operations and maintenance teams and others as appropriate.
Activities in these plans focus on removing risk from our roads based on, among other sources: traffic patterns identified in our data; operational observations; international and local research; and road safety assessments commissioned by us.
Our safety approach: while you’re on the road
Knowing what’s happening on our roads is critical to ensuring everyone using our roads enjoys safer, quicker and more efficient journeys.
Most of the crashes on our roads are categorised in our data as minor. Minor crashes are crashes where no one required first aid or an ambulance.
But any incident on our roads—the slightest of fender-benders, a vehicle breaking down, or even a pair of peacocks promenading along the road—represents some degree of risk. And incidents can also slow everyone else’s travel. So our road safety approach considers and addresses all incident types.
We keep people moving on our roads using three key tools:
Road equipment
Our road cameras and sensors are our automatic eyes on the road. They record road and tunnel activity and capture vital traffic data on incidents, near-misses, fallen debris and more.
Traffic control centres
When something goes wrong on the road, our control centre operators (watching the road day and night) will see it. Road sensors also alert operators the instant an incident is detected.
Rapid incident response
When an incident is detected, we despatch an Incident Response Team to attend. Teams help keep motorists safe, clear roads of debris, and organise tows for damaged vehicles.
Our safety approach: behind the scenes
Our road safety approach is integrated. We solve safety problems and add safety features by considering every element of road use together, including:
What happens
on our roads
The roads
themselves
The vehicles
people are driving
Road users understanding (and following) road rules
The speeds motorists are travelling at
Our safety activities extend beyond day-to-day operations. We also engage with our customers and communities; use data and research; and implement leading design innovations to improve the overall safety of our roads.
Data capture and research
Our road equipment, control centre operators and incident response teams collect incident data. We use this data, plus findings from leading and independent transport safety researchers to inform our work in preventing future incidents.
Improving infrastructure
We embed innovative safety solutions into our road design and construction. This means projects we build (new roads, tunnels, widenings and more) are increasingly safe—including the roads, tunnels, ramps, lighting—even down to the line markings.
Community education
Everyone who uses our roads plays a role in ensuring the safety of our roads—driving safely protects you and others. We share road safety messages with our customers, informed by observed incident trends and real-time data.
Putting data to work
Our integrated approach enables us to fix immediate problems on-the-spot and long-term issues over time. Data informs all our road safety activities—we capture data on traffic levels, driving conditions, incident occurrences and more.
The more we know, the more we can improve everyone’s safety while they’re on our roads, getting where they need to be. To this end, we’ve even studied drivers’ physiological reactions while searching out safer road management solutions. For example, ‘virtual’ drivers helped us research how to ease congestion (and associated safety risks) in CityLink’s Burnley Tunnel.
See our Burnley Tunnel Upgrade Project page for more information.