I drive on Australia’s most dangerous roads every week

Earlier this week, the latest AAMI Car Crash Index landed in my inbox.

After reading it, I admit I wasn't surprised to learn that nine of the 10 most accident-prone roads in 2025 were in Victoria. I have written about other studies with similar results, and I also live in Melbourne, so let's just say I've seen some things.

What did surprise me, however, was that four of the worst roads (and their worst intersections) were all places I drive through at least once a month – most of them every week.

One is on the way to my nearest shopping centre, one is near my most convenient freeway entrance, one is on the way to my Mum's house, and the last is near another of my frequent shopping haunts and on the way to our close friends' house.

Below is a list of the 10 roads and intersections with the most car crashes in Australia. My four regulars are highlighted.

Though I drive through these spots frequently, I wanted to examine them more than I do on my usual drive. So I went to each, parked up, and took a walk around.

My first stop was Bell Street and Albert Street. I immediately noticed a problem.

Not one, not two, not even three, four or five – but a total of six driveways into businesses were situated within roughly 20 metres of the intersection. Most of them were about 10 metres from the lights.

What's more, the majority of those businesses were the sorts of places people would decide to turn into at the last minute. A KFC. A Hungry Jacks attached to a servo. A car wash with a drive through cafe attached. A bottle shop drive through.

Even though I have a decade of experience covering property and planning news, I wanted an expert opinion on my hunch that these 'impulse-inducing' businesses being so close to intersections did indeed make for a higher risk of accidents.

So, I asked one of Australia's most respected urban planning gurus, RMIT University Emeritus Professor Michael Buxton, to weigh in.

"There are no planning provisions which specifically address intersection safety," Professor Buxton said.

"Any traffic movement that is directed into an intersection is potentially dangerous from commercial premises.

"The safety issue is a secondary criteria to commercial imperative, and that shouldn't be the case; it shouldn't."

The next spot I visited was even worse – at least on two of the corners.

The intersection at Sydney and Mahoneys Roads has a shopping centre with a Coles and other retailers on one corner and a pub with a drive-through bottle shop on the opposite corner.

But these two commercial premises weren't the worst offenders at this intersection, because on the other two corners are turn-ins to drive-through take-away eateries. One is the cult chicken chain El Jannah. I'm sure you can guess the other, but I'll give you a hint ... it has glowing, golden arches.

"The McDonald's is right on the intersection, and they've deliberately done this because they want high visibility and they want access. I think they probably want cars to come in from the intersection, and the problem there is it's increasing the risk," Professor Buxton said.

He said that the entrance to the shopping centre, which includes the Coles, on the adjacent corner was actually a better example of how this can be done to reduce risk close to an intersection.

"The Coles looks as if the entry is off Jeffrey Street, which is probably 30 or 40 metres from the intersection. It is back from the intersection, and the car park is actually separated from the intersection by that strip of grass. They've made an attempt there to bring the entry point back from the intersection," he said.

The other two intersections on my regular commutes had similar attributes – drive throughs, shopping centres and petrol stations on at least two out of four corners.

"Petrol stations are everywhere, right on intersections with dangerous entry points all over Melbourne, and it's deliberate because they want people to think 'I'm running a bit low on petrol, where will I get it? Here's a petrol station, I can just whip in'," Professor Buxton said.

"The sighting of the premises is important, but the entry point is critical to attract that instant decision-making that drivers do on the spur of the moment. These premises design their entry and exit points to cash in on that rush decision."

So what's to be done?

Businesses that seek corner spots on busy intersections "should be forced, if they don't own the land, to buy more land back from the intersection and have the entry point back from the intersection", Professor Buxton said.

In the mean time, what do drivers do to avoid the risk?

AAMI motor prevention manager Mary Kennedy said awareness was key, no matter where you live.

“The message is the same: leave a safe gap, look further ahead, take extra care at intersections and avoid rushing
through busy traffic," Kennedy said.