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| Photo by Hugh O'Brian |
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| Photo by Christine Gustafen, CARRS-Q |
Queensland is leading the world in finding better ways to communicate safety
messages to drivers in rural and remote areas.
Every k over may be a killer. But it seems that message and others about drink driving, seat belts and fatigue are not getting through to drivers in rural and remote areas.
That’s why QUT’s Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety
- Queensland (CARRS-Q) and James Cook University are embarking on the world’s
first study of its kind to develop a countermeasure to alter driving behaviours
and attitudes of rural and remote drivers.
QUT PhD student Gayle Sticher (pictured) is currently conducting face-to-face
interviews with road accident victims to help formulate a Brief Intervention
Program to alter perceptions and practices.
Gayle’s preliminary findings show that rural and remote drivers generally believe they have excellent driving skills and that accidents are caused by other drivers or tourists.
“But the data indicates the majority of rural and remote accidents are single vehicle crashes.”
She said rural drivers compare very badly on the ‘Fatal Four’ road safety measures of seat belt use, drink driving, speeding and fatigue. “Alcohol use and failure to wear a seat belt are factors in rural crashes at twice the rate of urban accidents while speeding is a factor at one and a half times the rate of urban accidents.”
“Some people in the bush still believe dangerous myths like the one about removing your seat belt when travelling on a gravel road so that if the car rolls, you can quickly get into the foetal position in a ‘safe’ part of the car!”
Atherton-based Gayle became interested in rural road safety from her work as a psychologist in Far North Queensland.
CARRS-Q Director Professor Mary Sheehan said Queensland is a unique laboratory for studying rural and remote road safety.
“There are enough accidents to give us sufficient data to study and outstanding cooperation between all the major players,” she said. “In the Northern region, while only 25 per cent of the population live in rural and remote areas, 42 per cent of the hospitalisations and 68 per cent of the fatalities due to road crashes occur in those areas.
“We want to find out why the message is not getting through in rural and remote areas.”
Professor Sheehan believes monotony may play a key role in rural accidents. CARRS-Q is planning a major joint study with Transport Canada using a special simulator where the effects of monotonous and non-monotonous roads can be compared.
The Rural and Road Safety Study is supported by the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Queensland Police Service, Emergency Services, Transport and Main Roads, Q-Fleet, QR, the Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Queensland Health and the Motor Accident Insurance Commission while Gayle’s PhD is supported by NRMA Insurance and CARRS-Q.
Queensland is also leading the way in developing strategies to tackle the problem of unlicensed driving by Indigenous Australians. In 2003 CARRS-Q and Queensland Transport undertook a year-long research study to better understand the cultural, access and procedural barriers impacting on the capacity of Indigenous people to obtain and retain appropriate drivers licences.
The Safe-4-Life Indigenous Licensing Project found that between 1999 and 2001 the driver in almost 50 per cent of serious casualty crashes involving Indigenous people in Queensland did not hold the appropriate licence.
As a result of the project, the Queensland Police Service with advice from CARRS-Q and the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service developed a delivery model better tailored to community needs.
This included a six monthly visiting service to align with licensing stages and renewals to counter the cost and access issue, utilising local content and local trainers such as Indigenous community police to increase message acceptance, a group-based interactive learning approach and modifications to the test to ensure cultural sensitivity.
www.carrsq.qut.edu.au
Last reviewed 19 January 2006