Western Australia is on course to record more than 200 road deaths in a calendar year for the first time since 2008, a trend that carries implications for motor insurers and for the state-owned scheme that underwrites compulsory injury cover across the state’s registered vehicles. More than 110 people died on WA roads between January and June 2026 (H1 2026), according to figures cited by WA Today. ABC reported 112 fatalities to early July, up from 103 in the same period of 2025 and 91 in 2024. WA recorded 184 deaths in 2025 and 188 in 2024. The last year the annual figure passed 200 was 2008, at 209.
WA’s trajectory sits within a broader national rise. Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE) data recorded 1,332 road deaths nationally in the 12 months to November 2025, a 3.0% increase on the prior year, with the per-capita rate at 4.8 deaths per 100,000 people. Both figures have climbed since a 2020 low, with total fatalities increasing at roughly 4% a year. The direction runs counter to the National Road Safety Strategy 2021-30, which commits all Australian governments to cutting annual fatalities by at least 50% and serious injuries by at least 30% by 2030. In the 12 months to May 2026, WA carried the second-highest state fatality rate at 6.2 deaths per 100,000 people, behind the Northern Territory.
The rise in crash frequency adds to cost pressures already reshaping the motor line. The Insurance Council of Australia’s (ICA) March 2025 Motor Insurance Policy Paper reported that the average comprehensive premium rose about 42% between 2019 and 2024 to $1,052, with the average claim size rising 42.2% over the same period, ahead of general inflation of about 20%. Repair costs climbed 26% since 2022 and now account for roughly 60% of claim costs, while the sector’s motor costs as a share of premiums collected rose from 89% in June 2019 to 94% in June 2024, indicating narrowing underwriting margins.
The upward trend has continued into 2026. Canstar reported in June 2026 that the average comprehensive premium rose 5%, or $111, over the prior 12 months. In WA, the average comprehensive premium reached $2,208, a 3% or $60 year-on-year increase. That places WA’s premium growth below the national rate even as its crash frequency runs among the highest of any state, a combination that keeps pricing adequacy in focus for motor underwriters carrying WA exposure.
The Insurance Commission of Western Australia (ICWA) is the sole underwriter of the state’s compulsory motor injury insurance, the fault-based scheme that funds compensation and lifetime care for people injured in crashes, governed by the Motor Vehicle (Third Party Insurance) Act 1943 and catastrophic-injury legislation. Premiums are collected through vehicle registration; the most common rate in the 2024-25 financial year was $505 for a personal-use vehicle.
The commission’s audited 2024-25 annual report, tabled in the WA Parliament in September 2025, records a shift in the scheme’s underwriting position. The Third Party Insurance Fund (TPIF) recorded an underwriting loss of $37.2 million, reversing an $82.6 million profit the prior year. The Commission attributed the result to a lower risk-free discount rate that raised the value of reserves, a lower-than-expected number of claim closures, and more open claims at year-end, rather than to a single-year rise in claim numbers. The fund still reported an operating profit before tax of $390.2 million once investment income was included, and the separate Catastrophic Injuries Fund (CIF) recorded an underwriting profit of $158.5 million.
The national picture the ICA describes, rising claim severity outpacing inflation, gives that fund result a wider frame: WA’s scheme carries the same cost pressures alongside a fault-based injury liability that responds directly to crashes. Total motor injury insurance claims liability was estimated at $3.65 billion as of June 30, 2025. The Commission received 3,941 new compensation claims and closed the year with 7,264 open compensation claims, up from 6,934 a year earlier. Regional crashes represented about 16% of all crashes reported but accounted for 32% of new catastrophic injury claims, a concentration relevant to the fund’s long-tail care liabilities. Because CTP claims are triggered by injury, a sustained rise in crash frequency feeds the fund’s incurred claims directly, a cost driver distinct from the discount-rate valuation movement behind the recorded 2025 loss. In its report, the Commission stated that the 2024-25 financial year brought the highest road death toll since 2007.
RAC, which is both a motor insurer and a road-safety advocate, said road deaths had been at crisis levels for consecutive years. “If we keep going the way we’re going, we will likely see more than 200 people killed on our roads for the first time in 18 years,” said head of communications Rhys Heron. He pointed to the Road Trauma Trust Account, the special-purpose account into which all safety-camera fine revenue is paid and from which road-safety projects are funded. “At a time when the Road Trauma Trust Account is receiving record levels of revenue, it is concerning that road deaths continue to rise,” Heron said. The account received about $127 million in 2022-23 against a five-year average of around $108 million, and the state committed a further $339.9 million from the account over 2025-26 to 2029-30 in its 2026-27 budget.
Road Safety and Police Minister Reece Whitby linked enforcement technology to changing driver behaviour, saying detected seatbelt and mobile phone offences on cabin-facing freeway and trailer cameras had dropped by about 80% since their February 2025 introduction. Shadow Road Safety Minister Julie Freeman said $125 million of a planned $250 million for local government roads had been committed, adding that half of the state’s fatalities occur in regional areas, ABC reported. For underwriters, brokers, and the state CTP scheme, elevated crash frequency, regional injury concentration, and claims-cost inflation together point to continued pressure across WA’s motor portfolio.
