Country crashes continue to claim lives

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Regional drivers continue to contribute to a high percentage of the State’s road toll, with country roads accounting for 60% of fatal collisions according to Inspector Mark Atkinson, officer in charge of Road Policing Section and Highway Patrol.

“Fatal collisions continue to be disproportionately concentrated in the country and regional areas, reflecting a long standing and persistent pattern in SA,” Inspector Atkinson advised.

The majority of people who died on South Australian roads in the first three months of 2026 were driving in regional areas, with Inspector Atkinson attributing higher speed limits, less forgiving road infrastructure, heavy vehicles and fewer protective barriers as just some factors that lead to higher fatality rates in the country.

“Drivers may feel safer on open roads and underestimate hazards such as road edges, wildlife or surface conditions, even though collisions at these speeds are far more severe,” Inspector Atkinson said.

“The biggest misconception regional drivers tend to have about road safety is that quiet, familiar roads are safer roads,” he said.

“Many drivers equate low traffic volumes and local knowledge with low risk.”

Tragically, Inspector Atkinson said most serious regional crashes involve local people on roads they regularly travel.

“Most regional road lives lost occur within 10kms of the person’s home address, which is frightening,” he said.

“These are local residents on familiar roads. These are not necessarily tourists or unfamiliar drivers.”

Inspector Atkinson said statistics show that country drivers are also more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviour on the roads.

“Longer travel times, limited public transport options and fewer rest opportunities means drivers are more likely to push on while tired or driving after drinking, particularly where the perceived likelihood of enforcement is low,” he said.

Inspector Atkinson said that according to SAPOL data recorded over the past five years, 74% of fatal crashes and 59% of serious injury crashes in country regions involved at least one of The Fatal Five: drink and drug driving; speeding, distraction, seatbelts and dangerous road users.

The Fatal Five: drink and drug driving; speeding, distraction, seatbelts and dangerous road users

One of the more surprising trends identified by SAPOL is the number of seatbelt offences that are a contributing factor in regional crashes.

“We do see an over-representation of speeding, distraction, drink and drug driving and for some reason which is unbeknown to us, the failure to wear seatbelts, particularly in country and regional areas as opposed to metropolitan areas,” he said.

“We don’t know why that’s the case, but the wearing of seatbelts does seem to be a contributing factor to lives lost and serious injuries, more so in the regions than it does in metro, particularly in the regional area where farming vehicles that might be a 20 or 30-year-old ute where the driver’s driving on country roads and just not wearing the seatbelts,” he said.

“It does seem to be a consistent practice on regional roads.”

Drink and drug driving was the largest contributor in SAPOL’s regional crash data, contributing to 22% of fatal and serious injury collisions.

Inspector Atkinson said many offenders were accustomed to looking for marked police cars before driving home and in response, SAPOL has started deploying unmarked police vehicles in South Australia’s regional communities under ‘Operation Bluff’.

“The locals would look for a marked police car and when there was no red and blue police car in the street, they’d get in their car and they’d drive home,” he said.

He said police had noted concerning levels of offending among middle-aged local residents.

“We are having a high detection rate of local residents who again, coming back to that familiarity and the complacency, (are) getting in their vehicles after being at the hotel or at the sporting club and running the gauntlet to get to their home address,” he said.

Inspector Atkinson noted that Friday to Sunday remains the highest risk period.

He urged regional road users to remain attentive when driving, and not to become complacent when they get behind the wheel of a vehicle.

“A lot of these people… working regionally and living regionally… this is all they’ve known,” he said.

“They know the roads, they’re familiar with the roads. They don’t ever expect to get into a motor vehicle and think that it’s going to be their last time.”