Heading out on the highways of death

The Pacific Highway is one of Australia's iconic roads, heading north from Sydney along spectacular coastline and bushland, passing through Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour and Lismore to the Queensland border.

It is also among the nation's most dangerous routes, killing on average 44 people a year and rousing passions that last month led to blows on the floor of the New South Wales Parliament.

This week, Coffs Harbour MP Andrew Fraser, back in the House after an eight-day suspension for attacking Roads Minister Joe Tripodi in a fit of rage at delays in improvements to the highway, had new cause for anger. An entire family - parents, both aged 29, and their 6-month-old twins - was killed in a crash north of Newcastle.

But a survey by the Australian Automobile Association has shown that the Pacific Highway is neither alone nor by any means the most deadly of the nation's highways.

More than half of a combined total of 17,162km of highways carry either a medium-high or high risk to motorists, according to the survey.

The highways range from relatively short roads out of major cities to the Great Northern and Victoria route that stretches almost 3200km from Perth, through Kununurra in the far north, and east to Katherine in the Northern Territory.

The federal Government's national road strategy has also identified the risk, estimating that 332 lives a year could be saved if roads were improved through measures ranging from resurfacing and the installation of safety barriers to wider shoulders and better alignment.

Some roads are thoroughly lethal. The Great Northern and Victoria highway, the 908km of the Stuart Highway and 153km of the Barkly Highway in the Northern Territory annually suffer an average of between 16 and 35 accidents involving death or injury per 100 million vehicle-kilometres.

Improving the system is hugely expensive. Spending on roads exceeds A$6 billion a year, with the Government this year allocating a further A$1.35 billion to a nationwide, five-year upgrading.