Rural road fatalities were two-thirds of last year's national road toll.
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Speed, distraction and fatigue are most likely to impact rural New South Wales drivers, a recent research released by the Australian Road Safety Foundation (ARSF) has revealed.
At least 71 per cent of both metro and regional drivers admit to dangerous driving behaviour generally. A similar number of metro (21 per cent) and regional (29 per cent) drivers confess to being more likely to break a road rule in rural areas, the research states.
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It notes that dangerous road behaviours occur less frequently in rural areas compared to city streets and still more fatalities take place in regional areas.
Sgt Danny Bridge, Hume Highway Patrol, feels that driver fatigue and inattention are top causes of serious accidents in the area.
"Sometimes acts like using mobile phones while driving or doing something else in the car like playing with the radio can cause accidents," he said.
He feels that educating people helps in preventing road trauma.
"Engineering of the roads, more overtaking lanes, signages, better marking on roads and divided roads also have a huge impact on reducing road trauma," he added.
"Abide by the speed limits, don't drive fatigued and don't be inattentive. Pay attention all the time."
ARSF founder and CEO Russell White said every Australian driver, whether city or regional based, must take ownership of their role in reducing the rural road toll.
"Despite smaller population numbers, 835 people tragically lost their lives on regional roads last year, which shows that just one dangerous choice can have dire consequences," Mr White said.
"When it came to reasons for increasing risky behaviour on rural roads, not getting caught was the most common response, and it was most prevalent amongst regional drivers.
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"The research also tells us that on rural roads, local drivers are more cognisant of their behaviour causing harm to others, whereas metro drivers are more likely to only be concerned with doing harm to themselves.
"We will continue to see an unnecessary loss of life in rural communities until we acknowledge that all road users have a personal responsibility to ensure safety is front of mind when behind the wheel."
Rural road safety month is a community-based awareness initiative running from August 1-31.
The ARSF research was conducted by a third-party research company, Pure Profile, and was an online survey of more than 1,000 licenced Australians, nationally representative by gender, age and location.
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