Understanding the extent and impact of Indigenous road trauma.

Abstract

While transport-related injuries represent a leading cause of death for all Australians, several disparities exist between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. Compared to non-Indigenous Australians, Indigenous Australians are more than twice as likely to have a transport-related fatal injury, with fatality risk remaining high with age while declining among the non-Indigenous community. Few studies and appropriate databases exist to elucidate the causes and solutions to this over-representation. This paper presents a summary of known risk factors, discusses the impact of road injury at multiple levels and suggests steps towards addressing this significant public health problem.