The most dangerous weekday to drive on NSW roads

Saturday remains the most dangerous day of the week, but there have been 54 road fatalities on a Wednesday this year, compared to 36 last year. There were 60 deaths on Saturdays in the same period, according to figures provided by Transport for NSW's Centre for Road Safety.

An analysis of the deaths on various days of the week show fatalities on Wednesdays have been increasing over time. It is now part of an emerging trend that road safety researchers have called Deadly Wednesdays.

Although Wednesday, or "hump day", was the least dangerous day of the year to drive last year, it was the third most dangerous in 2015 with 53 fatalities, and the second most dangerous in 2014, tying with Thursdays with 47 deaths on both days.

Centre for Road Safety executive director Bernard Carlon said there had been some "really significant increases" in road fatalities on Wednesdays, even after annual fluctuations were taken into account.

The Wednesday spike was seen in nearly every category. But Mr Carlon said three areas were particularly concerning because they were significantly up on Wednesdays, but trending down annually. They were:

• speed-related fatalities: 19 this year, compared to 10 last year, and about 12 on average in 2014 to 2016.
• passenger deaths: six times higher this year with 12 killed as a result of car crashes, compared with only two last year, and about 5.7 a year for 2014 to 2016, and
• pedestrian fatalities: nine this year compared to only three last year, compared with only five a year in 2014 to 2016.

Mr Carlon attributed the Wednesday phenomenon to it being a busy work day. There were more people "doing tasks, being out on the roads, and doing jobs", which increased their exposure to risk.

Last Wednesday, an 82-year-old man died at Bundeena when his Hyundai Ascent swerved on to the wrong side of the road about 3pm, crashing into a 52-year-old man, who was believed to be a tradesman driving out of town in his ute. The man was hospitalised with serious injuries, including a tibia that had been pushed down by the force of the crash into his foot, police said.

Mr Carlon said drivers are likely to see an increase in campaigns, education and police activity during the week to raise awareness of the dangers, including speeding and driving while tired.

Many people assumed the roads were safer on weekdays and were more dangerous on weekends, public holidays and school holidays.

"The reality is that we now have more fatalities midweek and in non school holiday weekends, when we have a higher rate than people would generally think," said Mr Carlon. "There is more activity, and we don't have more control mechanisms, and you can end up with more crashes, particularly where people are driving at high speed (and that) can lead to more fatalities," he said.

The average rate of fatalities on a weekday was now 0.92 a day, which was higher than public holidays at 0.9 a day. Deaths on the roads on a holiday weekend now averaged 1.06, compared with 1.41 on non holiday weekends throughout the year.

Only once since 1991 has Wednesday been the worst day for road fatalities. It shared the unenviable title of the worst day in 2012 with Saturday, when both had 65 people die on NSW roads. It was runner up in 2014, 2003 and 1994.

Research shows that Wednesdays are usually a peak day for work, with most people taking sickies or those working part time tending to take Mondays and Fridays off.

NRMA Insurance warned last year of more collisions occurring at the end of the week, particularly Thursdays and Fridays. It found motorists are more likely to have a collision towards the end of the work week with collisions more likely to occur around 8am and between 3pm to 5pm