Calls for mandatory reporting of collisions with animals in Victoria

Animal-focused organisations have called on the Victorian Government to implement a parliamentary inquiry's recommendation for mandatory reporting of motorist animal strikes on the state's roads.

It stems from the final report of a parliamentary inquiry into wildlife roadstrikes in Victoria, which made a number of recommendations late last year, including that motorists should be required to report collisions with wildlife.

“[It is recommended] the Victorian Government consider amending the Road Safety Act 1986 (Vic) to require motorists to stop and render assistance to wildlife they have struck when safe to do so,” the report stated.

Rendering assistance could mean simply reporting the collision to a wildlife rescue organisation, noting that this will require a matching state‑wide notice and dispatch system agreed and adopted by all active stakeholders, including volunteer organisations,”

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Wildlife Victoria, RSPCA Victoria, and the Invasive Species Council say mandatory reporting would not only make roads safer for motorists by providing accurate data for government agencies to identify risky locations, but also help wildlife rescue organisations to quickly reach and assist injured animals.

Wildlife Victoria states it has recorded a 288 per cent increase in wildlife-vehicle collision cases over the past decade.  

The organisation told Drive it currently tracks the number of animals hit by cars based on calls made to its Emergency Response Service.

“The 288 per cent increase statement is based on total recorded hit by vehicle case volume to our Emergency Response Service between 2015 and 2025,” a spokesperson said.

“Wildlife Victoria collects data via its Emergency Response Service with each call logged and recorded. In 2025 we received over 189,000 calls for help from members of the public, assisting 114,636 native animals across 450 different species.”

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The need for better data collection was included in another of the recommendations by the parliamentary inquiry into wildlife roadstrikes in Victoria’s report.

“[It is recommended] the Victorian Government consider the establishment of a centralised, publicly accessible wildlife roadstrike data collection system database, in conjunction with and for adoption by all,” the report stated.

“This system should integrate data from wildlife rescuer groups, insurance claims, council reports, police data and individual wildlife rescuer call‑outs, ensuring data method consistency and transparency, and ‘single point of truth’ data curation.”

The current Road Safety Act 1986 in Victoria includes a requirement for motorists to report an animal collision, but only if that animal is considered property, such as a pet or farm animal.