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Historically, significantly more vehicle passengers have died each year than pedestrians. However, recent data indicates this is changing.
Data from the National Road Safety Data Hub shows that since 1989, more vehicle passengers have typically died each year than pedestrians. However, recent data has inverted this historic trend.
Recent road death statistics show that more pedestrians (190 fatalities) have been killed in the first 11 months of 2025 than vehicle passengers (186 fatalities).
This change has been driven by an increase in pedestrian deaths since last year, rather than a dramatic decline in passenger deaths.
In the first 11 months of 2024, 186 vehicle passenger fatalities, and 157 passenger fatalities, were recorded.
According to the National Road Safety Data Hub, there was a steady decrease in the share of total road deaths attributed to pedestrians from 2001 to 2021. However since 2021 the share of pedestrians in total road fatalities has increased.
Associate Professor Milad Haghani and Research Fellow Iman Taheri Sarteshnizi from the University of Melbourne recently wrote that vehicles, while becoming safer for their occupants, have become more dangerous to vulnerable road users.
Haghani and Sarteshnizi, citing recent international research, speculated that an increase in the number of large vehicles on the road, such as SUVs and large utes, could be contributing to the rising share of pedestrian fatalities.
Max is the News Publishing Coordinator for Drive. He enjoys creating engaging digital content, including videos, podcasts, interactive maps, and graphs. Prior to Drive, he studied at Monash University and gained experience working for various publications. He grew up playing Burnout 3: Takedown on the PS2 and was disappointed when real life car races didn’t have the same physics.
