More than 200 lives could be saved on Australian roads a year if fuel prices were increased to the same level as prices in Britain, a study by an Australian National University academic suggests.
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Dr Paul Burke and his co-author, visiting Japanese academic Dr Shuhei Nishitateno, compared road deaths and petrol prices from 144 countries between 1991 and 2010.
They found that eliminating fuel subsidies around the world would mean 35,000 fewer deaths a year among drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians – 3 per cent of the global death toll.
Higher fuel prices meant fewer vehicles on the road, shorter distances travelled and lower-speed driving to save fuel. Lower prices also had a disproportionate effect on high-risk drivers - the young and old, who were especially sensitive to prices, according to the study.
Dr Burke said Australia's fuel prices were quite low compared with other developed countries. They were lower than Europe and Japan, but higher than North America.
"We looked at what would happen if Australia had prices as high as the United Kingdom, and the effects would actually be pretty big," he said.
In 2010, British motorists paid $US1.92 a litre for petrol, compared with an Australian price that year of $US1.21.
Dr Burke said if Australia boosted its prices to the British level, the number of road deaths would decrease by about 15 per cent – saving 200 to 300 lives a year.
"It would take time for that to happen, but that's the type of magnitude that could be achieved," he said.
The calculation of 35,000 fewer deaths globally was based on lifting fuel prices to United States levels – which are still far below Australia and Britain. In the US, the price in 2010 was US76 cents. If Britain reduced its fuel price to that level, it would see another 1800 road deaths a year, almost double the current road toll, the study found.
This month, the federal government increased its fuel excise, but Dr Burke said the change was too small to make a big difference to the road toll.
"This is a small change, but over time it would lead to a slight reduction in road deaths compared to the situation of not having that change," he said. "But it would be a small type of effect as the change isn't a big one."
He acknowledged there were "lots of things to consider" when setting fuel taxes but road safety was "very serious and important."
"This study really just says one thing: we know that if the tax is higher then it will help in our efforts to reduce road deaths," he said.
"Hopefully the information we have provided will be useful to informing the discussion."
Venezuela came out worst in Dr Burke's international analysis, with the cheapest fuel, at US 2 cents a litre, and the highest death rate, at 37 road deaths per 100,000 people.
Increasing prices to the US's modest US 76 cents a litre would save more than 5000 lives there. Next cheapest is Iran, where fuel costs US10 cents a litre. In Indonesia (US 51 cents), 4500 lives could be saved a year at US fuel prices.
