NRMA - ACT Road Safety Trust - Postgraduates and Areas of Research

Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) - Ms Karen Stephan

Area of Research: The relationship between drivers’ use of prescription medications and traffic crash involvement (commencement date March 2006).

This research will investigate the relationship between the use of prescription medications and traffic crash involvement. While the risk associated with alcohol use is well recognized, the impact of other drugs on road safety is less clear, particularly prescription medications. Only a few large-scale epidemiological studies of this issue have been conducted. The lack of scientific studies in this area means that health professional and pharmacists must rely on guidelines based mainly on expert opinion when providing advice to patients regarding the effect of medications on driving.

Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety (CARRS-Q) - Queensland University of Technology - Ms Tamara Banks

Area of Research: Organisational models applied to work related road safety (commencement date April 2006).

The central research question underpinning this PhD program is: How can work related road safety be improved in an organisation? To answer this question several sub questions will be explored including:

• What outcomes have been observed in previously investigated fleet safety interventions?
• Do organisational differences in readiness for change, organisational culture, fleet safety climate or safety ownership relate to fleet safety perceptions, practices or outcomes?
• What facilitators and barriers are involved in implementing fleet safety interventions?

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  Presentation (MS PowerPoint Document - 353k)

The George Institute for International Health - Mr Reece Hinchcliff

Area of research: Policy Pathways: a stakeholder and media analysis of the Australian road safety research-to-policy process (commenced February 2006)

In an attempt to reduce the continued high levels of road trauma for drivers aged 17-25 years, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia were scheduled in July 2007, to introduce more comprehensive Graduated Licensing Scheme models than what were previously in place. In particular, all three jurisdictions plan to introduce variant models of nighttime and passenger restrictions for first year provisional drivers.

This thesis explores the different factors involved in the debate and eventual decision to introduce these restrictions. Issues that will be explored include why similar inputs into the road safety research-to-policy process in each jurisdiction resulted in different policy pathways taken and outcomes reached. These apparent political decision-making anomalies will be explored.

The George Institute for International Health - Ms Liz de Rome

Area of research: Risk factors and costs of motorcycle injury in NSW and the ACT with the objective of identifying and examining the most promising options for intervention (commenced April 2007)

The proposed research will be in two stages:

• Stage 1: Analyse data series containing all police reported motorcycle crashes over the past ten years from the RTA NSW and motorcycle related admissions over the same period from the NSW Hospitalisation Database. Appropriate ACT records will also be analysed.
• Stage 2: Undertake a series of studies designed to examine the role of rider education and protective clothing in the reduction of road traffic injury.

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  Presentation (MS PowerPoint Document - 2744k)

Australian National University - Mr Chris Hatherly

Area of research: Research into age related declines in the many different cognitive and physical abilities of older drivers (commenced January 2007).

The proposed research will build upon an emerging literature in cognitive psychology that has identified visual attention as one of the primary abilities implicated in unsafe driving in late adulthood. In addition to contributing to knowledge and theory in this field, it is anticipated that the study will help develop applied screening instruments and possibly interventions for use with older drivers.

University of Canberra - Master of Human Resource Development (Research) - Ms Lucienne Kleisen

Area of research: Do young driver’s thinking styles impact on their driving behaviour? (commenced July 2007).

Objectives of this study are:

• To identify the thinking styles of young drivers and to examine if any relationship exists with their driving styles;
• To identify any differences that might occur between young male and young female drivers with respect to their thinking styles and driving behaviours;
• To assess the impact of styles of thinking on the (reported) driving styles of the sample; and
• To investigate if awareness raising and education have any influence on thinking styles of young drivers.

The study will focus on a sample of university students, male and female between the ages of 17-24 year of age and a similar sample of non-university educated young drivers.