Share road safety responsibility: NHVR plea after increase in deaths from heavy vehicle crashes on Australia’s rural roads (QLD)

The call comes during Rural Road Safety month, as the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) shared data showing both the number of heavy vehicle crashes and resulting fatalities on Australia’s rural roads have jumped.

In the past financial year, 59 fatal heavy vehicles crashes occurred on rural roads resulting in 63 deaths, up from 52 crashes and 59 fatalities in 2024/25.

NHVR Chief Operations Officer Paul Salvati said the data from the Australian Road Deaths Database showed a worrying upward trend.

“Between FY24 and 25 we saw a drop in both the number of fatal rural heavy vehicle crashes and the lives lost as a result of them – it seemed messages about road safety on rural roads was getting through,” Mr Salvati said.

“Sadly, between FY25 and FY26, both of these figures have jumped to levels even higher than in FY24 - we are losing more lives to more heavy vehicle crashes in country areas and it’s a trend we must turn around.”

Mr Salvati said the one positive that came out of the analysis of the data was that Queensland had shown a reduction in both the number of fatal rural heavy vehicle crashes and the lives lost because of them.

“Queensland is the only state that has shown a drop in these terrible data points – in FY25, 21 fatal heavy vehicle crashes took 23 lives. Thankfully, this dropped in FY26 when 19 crashes resulted in 21 fatalities,” Mr Salvati said.

“The slight reduction in these crash metrics in Queensland is a positive step, but we must remember that these numbers still show that 21 road users who did not make it home safely to their loves ones after driving on rural roads.”

Rural Road Safety Month is an initiative of the Australian Road Safety Foundation and runs throughout August.

The percentage of rural fatal heavy vehicle crashes varies across jurisdictions regulated by the NHVR, but Tasmania had the worst record with all fatal heavy vehicle crashes in FY26 occurring in rural areas.

Queensland had the next highest rate at 43%, followed by South Australia and New South Wales at 40% and 36.5% respectively. Victoria has a significantly lower rate over the period of rural fatal heavy vehicle crashes at just 17.5%.*

Mr Salvati called on all road users need to be vigilant on rural roads to reduce both the number of incidents and the resulting loss of life.

“Rural roads present unique risks – they are narrower, often far from emergency assistance and can present a relentless and tiring driving experience.

“Drivers on these roads have a very different experience than those in metro areas – simple things such as more active wildlife on the road and less physical separation between opposing traffic streams can be factors that contribute to crashes.

“Light vehicle drivers using these roads will share space with some of the largest heavy vehicles in the country – these vehicles need much longer distances to stop safely and have multiple blind spots which makes overtaking more dangerous.”

Nationally, the FY26 data showed most fatal heavy vehicle crashes in rural areas occurred in 100-110km/h speed zones, which are more prevalent outside of major cities.

The NHVR runs ongoing safety campaigns to educate experienced and newer drivers on how to drive safely around trucks in all settings.

In FY26 financial year the NHVR ran more than 60 operations across its jurisdiction to educate and inform drivers operating in rural areas of their responsibilities under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL).

The regulator’s Safety and Compliance teams also work with agencies such as state police to run holistic road safety and compliance operations in the regions. 

You can find more information about the Australian Road Safety Foundation’s Rural Road Safety Month. 

*Note: The heavy vehicle fatal crashes and fatality data quoted was obtained from the Australian Road Deaths Database (ARDD). The ARDD uses the National Remoteness Areas 2021 categories to establish defined areas. Rural statistics were derived from the Outer Regional Australia, Remote Australia and Very Remote Australia areas. This data relates to HVNL states only.