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# Motorcycle Deaths Up 28.3% as Car Deaths Rise Just 0.3%
- URL: https://www.carexplore.com.au/motorcycle-deaths-up-28-3-as-car-deaths-rise-just-0-3/
- Published: 2026-09-26T03:27:03.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-26T03:27:03.000Z
- Description: Motorcycle-related fatalities are up 28.3% and light commercial vehicles up 12.1%, while passenger cars rose just 0.3%. Here is what the mid-term review found.
- Author: Dylan Anderson
- Tags: Car News, Road Safety, car safety, ANCAP Safety Rating

If you ride a motorbike, the latest national road safety numbers are ugly. Motorcycle-related fatalities are up 28.3% on the baseline period, while fatalities involving passenger cars rose just 0.3%. The figures come from the Australian Government’s Mid-term Review of the National Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030, set out by independent safety advocate ANCAP SAFETY in a [statement released on 18 September 2026](https://www.ancap.com.au/media-and-gallery/media-releases/c05c84?ref=carexplore.com.au).

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## The four numbers, side by side

ANCAP lists the average changes over the period the Review covers like this: motorcycle-related fatalities up 28.3%, fatalities involving light commercial vehicles up 12.1%, fatalities involving heavy vehicles up 7.2%, and fatalities involving passenger cars up 0.3%.

Three of the four categories moved sharply the wrong way. One barely moved at all. If you drive an ordinary car, the risk picture around you is shifting toward the vans, utes, trucks and bikes sharing the road with you.

## Why passenger cars are the outlier

ANCAP puts the flat passenger-car result down to the vehicles themselves. The Review, it says, highlighted improvements in the safety performance of Australia’s light vehicle fleet — a shift ANCAP attributes to its ongoing encouragement of crash protection and crash prevention features.

## What ANCAP wants to happen next

> These findings show why Australia’s focus on safer vehicles must continue to broaden beyond passenger cars to include commercial vans, light and heavy trucks and motorcycles.

That is ANCAP Chief Executive Officer Carla Hoorweg. She also argues regulation is not the only way to get there: “Regulation is not the only policy lever available to improve vehicle safety. ANCAP’s vehicle assessment programs can incentivise safety technology well in advance of regulation.”

## The 2030 target these numbers are judged against

The National Road Safety Strategy 2021-30 commits Australian governments to cutting the annual number of fatalities by at least 50 per cent and serious injuries by at least 30 per cent by 2030\. That is the benchmark the mid-term figures are measured against, and it is the reason a 28.3% rise in one category matters well beyond the riders it covers.

## The data gap holding the response back

ANCAP backs the Review’s call to strengthen the use of data and evidence in national priority-setting and investment. Hoorweg’s point is that the information already exists but sits in pieces: “Important crash and vehicle information is already collected across Australia. The opportunity now is to bring that information together more consistently and make it accessible nationally - including detail on the specific crash scenario.”

Until that happens, ANCAP argues, the national view of real-world vehicle performance and emerging risk stays incomplete — and so does the evidence behind where policy, investment and safety interventions are directed.

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*Source: ANCAP SAFETY media release, 18 September 2026; National Road Safety Strategy 2021-30, Office of Road Safety.*