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STAYSAFE 18: FROM THE JOINT STANDING COMMITTEE UPON ROAD SAFETY: STEERING NOVICE DRIVERS TOWARDS SAFETY

Since STAYSAFE first reviewed driver licensing, in 1983 and 1984, there have been important reviews of the research literature, new research results, and much improved data about crash rates. A number of STAYSAFE recommendations have been implemented, and a more hopeful and pro-active stance is apparent amongst some road safety administrators and experts. In reviewing these developments, we have discovered, on the one hand, wasted enthusiasm, and on the other hand, unexploited opportunities. The wasted enthusiasm largely derives from almost universal underestimation of the task of changing driving safety. When validly tested for effects on crashes, attempts to teach safety have more often than not been exposed as not delivering improved safety at all. Unexploited opportunities are suggested by the high contribution of human factors to crashes, the high rates of involvements of novice drivers, and the low, unsophisticated resources directed at the problem so far. Inappropriate human behaviour has been identified as contributing to about 95 per cent of crashes. Yet only 1.6 per cent of 1989/90 Roads and Traffic Authority resources were applied to licensing drivers. Considerably less than 1.6 per cent appears to have been expended on driver education and training. Almost all such resources have been expended in unsophisticated ways, some of which have been discredited by rigorous research. Promising areas, identified during our review, include more thorough coverage of a number of topics in education, training and testing, and various restrictions aimed at steering novice drivers away from the most hazardous of driving conditions. Alcohol is as serious a problem for youth as it is for older drivers. We calculate that an additional 48 deaths and 400 hospital admissions resulted from crashes on NSW roads in 1989 due to 17-20 year old driving with illegal blood alcohol concentrations. The myth of "cheap" motorcycling needs to be challenged, with motorcycling by 17 to 20 year olds incurring accident costs of about $1/km. The licensing system has previously been found by us to have been undermined by corruption, and it is pleasing to see strenuous efforts to discourage malpractice. In this report we suggest several measures to deal with our concern that there is extensive unlicensed driving in NSW. A valuation of health by all people for all people, and a thorough appreciation of one's own contribution to health, may well be the most important components of educational efforts, in the long term. We draw attention to recent suggestions that the achievement of both may involve methods quite outside those traditionally used for road safety education.

  • Corporate Authors:

    Parliament of New South Wales

    Parliament House, 6 MacQuarie Street
    Sydney, New South Wales  Australia  2000
  • Publication Date: 1990-12

Media Info

  • Features: References;
  • Pagination: 108 p.

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00620335
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: ARRB
  • Files: ITRD, TRIS
  • Created Date: Mar 31 1992 12:00AM