Annual road safety data from the National Road Safety Hub shows 1332 people have died on Australian roads in the 12 months to November, a three per cent increase on the corresponding period last year.
The figure exceeds the 1300 people killed on the roads for all of 2024 and is the worst since 2010 when 1353 deaths were recorded.
Experts fear the toll will continue to rise as people hit the road for Christmas, with the Australian Automobile Association calling on the federal government to re-evaluate its overall approach to road safety.
"The starting point to addressing our worsening road toll is to understand what caused it to rise in the first place," the association's Michael Bradley said.
"Only by undertaking no-blame investigations can we properly understand our current problems and identify targeted solutions to reduce road trauma."
Australia's road toll peak remains 1970 with 3798 fatalities, prompting a national rethink on road safety and the introduction of mandatory seat belts and child restraints.
Australia was having a "horrific year on the roads", RACQ advocacy general manager Joshua Cooney said.
The Queensland motoring body has identified five factors as being responsible for the majority of road fatalities: speeding, drink driving, fatigue, distraction and unrestrained passengers or drivers.
"The fatal five continue to be a factor in most deaths, especially speeding and drink and drug driving," Mr Cooney told AAP.
"New cars may be safer, but they can't protect against reckless decisions behind the wheel and a blatant disregard for the law."
NSW had the most deaths to the end of November with 361, an increase of 10.7 per cent, while fatalities also increased in Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania.
But Victoria, South Australia, the Northern Territory and the ACT all managed to cut the number of deaths.
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