But they’re costly in other ways, too.

It’s estimated that the Australian economy loses $27 billion a year to road crashes.

In 2016, 279 people were seriously injured and 38 killed as a result of crashes on Tasmania’s roads. 

That’s five more than was recorded in 2015.

“The economic cost of road fatalities may be high, but the cost of losing your life or that of someone close to you is much higher,” Infrastructure Minister Rene Hidding said.

Road Safety Advisory Council (RSAC) chairman Jim Cox said serious injuries resulting from road crashes were more costly than deaths.

“Because there’s lifetime support for some serious injuries and they just go into millions per person.”

The Victorian government-owned Transport Accident Commission said the average lifetime cost of caring for someone with a severe brain injury was $2.7 million, for paraplegia $2 million and for quadriplegia $7.4 million.

Together with RSAC, the Department of State Growth launched the new Towards Zero Strategy in December, which is a “holistic” approach to addressing road safety issues that focuses on all safety factors and road users.

December saw two casualty crashes in the state. 

On December 18, a sedan travelling north on the Midland Highway crashed head-on into a van with a family of six inside. 

The male driver of the van was killed.

Three days later, a woman was killed on Weetah Rd near Deloraine when she was hit by a van travelling west.