Summary

This monograph compares Australias road safety performance with its OECD counterparts. The comparisons are drawn taking into account the level of motorisation and population of the countries reported. The results highlight the substantial gains made in road safety both in Australia and many other countries from 1975 to 1997.

Full details of these comparisons are reported in Benchmarking Road Safety The 1997 Report.

Summary

This report has been prepared by the Monash University Accident Research Centre. It constitutes the first stage of a potential multi-stage project and takes the form of a feasibility study of motorcycle and safety barrier crash-testing.

Summary

Unlicensed motorists feature prominently in Australias road crash statistics. Their crashes contribute about one in every twelve road fatalities. This monograph describes the Australian fatal crash involvement of those unlicensed motorists who drive or ride without ever having obtained a drivers or riders licence for the type of vehicle used, as distinct from those who drive or ride whilst disqualified. The description is based on data derived from coroners records about fatal crashes in 1994 and 1996, the latest years currently available.

Summary

Fatigue and fatigue management has attracted considerable interest in the long distance road transport industry over the last few years because it has been acknowledged increasingly as one of the industry's major problems. The research that has occurred because of this interest has clarified a number of aspects of the problem.

Summary

This report compares the annual road death rate of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in three jurisdictions, which currently collect this information, and then estimates the Indigenous road toll Australia-wide. Two conclusions can be drawn from the analyses in this report. First, road crashes account for a greater proportion of all deaths in the Indigenous population than the non-Indigenous population.

Summary

Drivers with dementia may have a higher accident risk than comparable drivers without dementia, but the results of studies are ambiguous, as are those linking neuropsychological impairments to driving safety. This study sought to identify neuropsychological tests that could identify dementia patients who are not safe to drive, and to develop a brief test procedure for screening their driving safety.

Summary

Australian Design Rule (ADR) 69 called for all new passenger cars to comply with a dynamic full frontal barrier crash test requirement, similar to US safety standard FMVSS 208 but with restrained test dummies. This study set out to evaluate how effective ADR 69 has been at preventing injuries and Harm to passenger car occupants in Australia since its introduction.

Summary

This is the thirteenth in a series of annual surveys of community attitudes and perceptions towards a range of road safety issues. Findings from this 2000 Community Attitudes Survey (CAS 13) were derived from telephone interviews with a national sample of 1,593 Australian residents aged 15 years and over. A summary of the main findings from the 2000 survey, along with a description of emerging trends and patterns, is provided below. More detailed results are provided in the main body of this report.

Summary

This project investigated the effects of two different work-rest schedules on fatigue and performance. The study addressed an important problem for Australian drivers and the long distance road transport industry in particular, that of driver fatigue. There is considerable evidence that for professional long distance drivers, fatigue is a major problem that is not being adequately addressed by current working hours regulations.

Summary

This monograph compares Australia's roadsafety performance to its OECD counterparts.The comparisons are drawn taking into account the level of motorisation and population of the countries reported. The results highlight the substantial gains made in road safety both in Australia and many other countries from 1975 to 1998. Full details of these comparisons are reported in Benchmarking Road Safety – The 1998 Report.