Spike in NSW road deaths despite record government spending

Highway patrol police will review parts of their strategy next year after the worst road toll in six years.

And despite a multimillion-dollar investment by the government, the size of the Traffic and Highway Patrol Command has remained largely static as road users have risen by half a million in five years.

The death of a woman in a two-car collision at Casino in northern NSW around 2pm on Christmas Day brought the road toll to 374.

The incident took the state's holiday road toll to two. On Saturday a woman died after the sedan she was driving veered off the Golden Highway near Scone.

After decades of decreasing fatalities, NSW has had two years of increases, in a trend described by the government as "a state tragedy".

Middle-aged male drivers and pedestrians have been behind much of the increase. Fatigue-related deaths rose 51 per cent this year.

There were also large increases in light truck fatalities – a possible outcome of economic growth and booming construction – and in seatbelt offences among overseas-born residents who may not have the same education around road safety, said Bernard Carlon​, executive director of the government's Centre for Road Safety.

"We did get a sense from our own research that people had started to switch off to the messaging about the road toll," he said.

"We're reconnecting the community to the reality that this impacts on families, loved ones, everyone. Fatalities cost $2.4 billion a year in NSW but the trauma has really wide-reaching impacts, not just dollars."

Assistant Commissioner Michael Corboy, who started as Highway Patrol commander in September, said more resources will be directed at pedestrian enforcement and mobile drug testing.

One of his first tasks next year will be to review Operation Free Flow, a strategy of placing highway patrol officers on major arteries each day.

The operation has frustrated some officers who feel they are more effective when out and about, not stationary.

"We should be out catching crooks," one officer told Fairfax Media.

Mr Corboy said the operation has been successful but he will "have a good look at it in the new year" and "if it needs to be adapted, it will".

He would not be drawn on whether the command needs more officers however other police have questioned why it has remained static as road users increase.

The highway patrol's authorised strength – the number of allocated positions for each area of the force – has not increased since the 2013 allocation of 1345 positions.

The actual number of officers has risen to 96 per cent of authorised strength this year, or 1291 officers.

Acting police minister David Elliott said the force's overall authorised strength is at a record high and the allocation is a matter for the Commissioner.

Mr Carlon said the government will re-prioritise $20 million into a "fatigue mass-action program" that includes more audio-tactile "rumble strips" on notorious roads and vehicle-activated warning signs on dangerous curves.

Much of the $309 million spent on the road toll this year, funded largely by speeding fines, has been targeted at trends as they arise.

For example, a spike in pedestrian deaths triggered funding for countdown timers at CBD intersections and in-ground pedestrian lights to capture the attention of people looking at their phones.

After a spike in young driver deaths, new regulations will be introduced in 2017 that see green P-platers have their provisional period extended if they receive a suspension.

"I can put in place all the infrastructure and fines in the world but it is useless if people don't exercise greater personal responsibility," Roads Minister Duncan Gay said. "One of the most frustrating things about the road toll is that every death is preventable."

In a small silver lining, the road toll has plateaued since May but is still 34 more than 2015.

"In the last six months it has been flat but, that said, our objective is to have it going down," Mr Carlon said.