Australia’s road death toll has been rising for five consecutive years, something that hasn’t happened since 1952.
In the 12 months to April, 1333 people were killed on Australian roads, up 3.5 per cent on the same time last year.
With SUV and ute sales more than doubling since 2006 and accounting for over 80 per cent of new vehicles sold in Australia, many are blaming bigger, heavier cars as a factor in the rising toll.
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But Australia’s peak road safety body, ANCAP, says the evidence doesn’t support that.
“The data at the moment is not showing that those larger pickups and SUVs are overrepresented,” ANCAP Chief Executive Carla Hoorweg said.
Hoorweg noted that American models like the Ram and Silverado are still relatively new to Australian roads, with sales volumes too small to draw a statistically meaningful conclusion.
Ram has so far sold 999 vehicles in 2026, while Chevrolet has sold 590 Silverados.
That said, their weight remains a genuine concern.
“They’re new to the market, so the volumes of sales aren’t quite there to make it statistically significant yet, but it’s clearly a concern because they’re heavier,” she said.
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According to ANCAP, speeding, fatigue, distraction and driving under the influence are the key factors behind the rise in the road toll.
Speeding alone accounts for between a third and 45 per cent of crashes, depending on the state.
“They are absolutely evidence-based, significant contributors to crashes,” Hoorweg said.
It comes as a road safety expert called for more aggressive fines that increase with the size and weight of vehicles, particularly targeting drivers of large SUVs and utes, as a new approach to reduce the rising road toll.
University of Melbourne Associate Professor Milad Haghani, who specialises in urban risk and resilience, told Drive.com.au that this tougher penalty system would more accurately reflect the greater risks that larger vehicles present on the road.
“Speeding or running a red light is never acceptable, and we penalise those behaviours because they create risk for others as well as the driver themselves,” he said.
“What we also know is that crashes involving large utes and SUVs are often much more consequential for other road users because of the size and mass of the vehicle.”
“There is also research suggesting that being behind the wheel of a larger vehicle can increase driver confidence and may subconsciously encourage greater risk-taking.
“One possible way to account for that additional external risk is for penalties to scale with vehicle size or mass.”
