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Transport for New South Wales is investigating the role reckless drivers are playing in the rising road death toll in the state.
Roads Minister John Graham raised the issue at the road safety conference in Sydney today, where industry experts and ministers gathered to discuss a "crisis" year on the state's roads.
In 2023, 349 people were killed, which was the sharpest road toll increase in 15 years.
In 2022, 288 people died on state roads.
Forty-eight people have died so far this year.
Widespread speed limit reductions, improved data gathering and sharing and the use of average speed safety cameras were all discussed at the forum as possible solutions.
'Crisis situation'
Mr Graham said he was also investigating the role of individual driver behaviour.
"A small section of our community became used to questioning the rules during COVID, and in some cases, outright flouting them," he said.
"It only takes a handful of individuals on our roads ignoring the road rules to make it far more dangerous for every one of us, and could be reflected in our road toll."
Mr Graham said the department was researching the problem and said "cookers" – people who think rules do not apply to them – were part of the problem.
"I want to be clear — we will not accept cooker culture on our roads," he said.
"If that research shows we need to act on this problem, this government will act."
Transport for NSW road safety head Bernard Carlson said the 2023 death toll marked the largest increase seen since 2009, when 453 people died on the state's roads.
"It is a crisis situation," he said.
"We were tracking to actually meet our 2030 target for the 50 per cent reduction [in road deaths] and that significant increase has meant that we are now significantly off target … both the national target and in New South Wales."
He said projects such as Safer Roads had reduced injuries and fatalities in black spot areas over the last 12 months.
Speed limit solution?
Federal Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Carol Brown told the forum the government had responded to calls for greater transparency regarding data collection and publishing.
Key industry groups including the NRMA have been calling for the federal government to compel states and territories to share in-depth road crash and safety data to a national database that would be used to inform infrastructure funding.
Mr Graham pledged NSW's support for the campaign and Ms Brown said steps towards a centralised data system had been taken.
"The Australian government has been working with all states and territories to finalise an intergovernmental road safety data sharing agreement, [which] will be signed by all states and territories shortly," she said.
The forum's keynote speaker was Swedish road expert Johan Strandroth, a former crash scene investigator who helped create the country's "towards zero" policy, which saw the death toll halve in 10 years.
He said reducing speed limits is one of the most straightforward ways to tackle road deaths.
Eric Howard AM agreed that was the best course of action.
"It would take 1,000 years to bring all our roads up to five stars, so we have to look at speed limits," he told the forum.
"Pick the high-volume routes that are going to be upgraded in the next five years and then look to get the others lowered to 80.
"I know it's a tough ask, but do we want to reduce deaths and serious injuries or not?"
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