New South Wales has recorded the deadliest year on its roads in eight years, with indications that there was no progress in curbing road fatalities nationwide in 2025.

In 2025, 355 people died on roads in NSW, 28 more than in 2024, the state government announced on Friday. It is the highest annual death toll on the state’s roads since 2017, when there were 392 deaths.

The minister for roads, Jenny Aitchison, called on people not to drive when they were distracted or under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and “to take their foot off the accelerator”. Speeding remained the biggest killer in 2025, a contributing factor in 134 deaths.

“It doesn’t have to be extreme speeding to be deadly, even a few kilometres over the limit can be the difference between a near-miss and a funeral,” Aitchison said.

The government said evidence showed many deaths occurred at “relatively low levels of excess speed”, including at less than 10km/h above the limit.

Australia as a whole appeared to be on track for another year of rising fatalities. In the 12 months to November 2025, there were 1,332 deaths on roads nationwide, according to the national road safety data hub, which has yet to publish its final statistics for the year.

Accumulated state and territory totals suggest the figure for the 2025 calendar year will be marginally up on 2024, when 1,300 people died on Australian roads, up from 1,258 in 2023.

Queensland experienced the largest number deaths after NSW, having recorded 302 by 24 December, the same as in the whole of 2024, according to the state government’s road safety education program StreetSmarts. Police said an additional four deaths over the Christmas period meant the number had risen to a 16-year high.

_{Sign up: AU Breaking News email}

In Victoria, there were 288 road deaths in 2025, according to the state’s Transport Accident Commission, four more than the previous year.

Victoria’s road policing assistant commissioner, Glenn Weir, said: “Again in 2025, we have seen so many examples of the most simple and avoidable mistakes that have resulted in catastrophic road trauma.”

The Tasmanian government said on Thursday there had been 44 road deaths in the state in 2025, an increase of 42% on 2024, when 31 people died.

Acting Insp Penny Reardon said it was “definitely frustrating” for police that “some drivers out there continue to disobey the rules and put people’s lives in danger”, after police intercepted more than 1,130 drivers exceeding the speed limit in the 11 days to Friday.

There were 181 deaths on roads in Western Australia last year, the state government said, 87 in South Australia, according to police, and 38 in the Northern Territory, all representing a reduction on last year’s totals. Nine deaths were recorded in the Australian Capital Territory, according to police.

Nationwide deaths reached their lowest level in 75 years in 2020 during the pandemic but the toll has since been increasing at a rate not seen since the mid-1960s. Wearing a seatbelt became compulsory in the front seat of cars in 1969 and in all seats by 1971.

Experts have considered a range of possible factors for the rise, including a significant rise in SUV use, the increasing presence of mobile phones and other devices in cars, deteriorating road quality, and the settings for speed limits on smaller and rural roads.

About two-thirds of road deaths in NSW last year (241) were in rural and regional areas. Cyclist deaths increased from five to 15, including three e-bike riders.