“We found that, between 1997 and 2007, there was an overall 5% reduction in fatality rates each year among young drivers, however this was due to a significant decline in death among urban drivers only. Rural drivers and those from a low socio-economic areas experienced a higher rate of fatalities than those from urban and high socio-economic areas, which didn’t change over time”, said researcher Dr Teresa Senserrick, The George Institute.

High posted speed limits (>90km/h), fatigue, drink driving and not wearing a seatbelt were found to be related to this constant high fatality risk for rural drivers. For young drivers from low socio-economic areas the rate of fatalities was attributed to high posted speed limits, fatigue and driving an older vehicle (>10 years).

Researchers emphasise that recent changes to young driver legislation have no doubt been a step in the right direction, but suggest that programs and policies targeting risky driving may not be reaching rural youth.

“This research highlights considerable geographic disparity among young drivers, and provides a clear and significant prevention target for policymakers. Area level interventions in rural and low socio-economic areas have the potential to reduce young driver death and should include a focus on driving behaviours, reviewing posted speed limits and education to improve vehicle choices. Such changes can also benefit all drivers, as young driver crashes also result in other road user fatalities”, Dr Senserrick added.

Researchers reviewed crash data for drivers aged 17-25, collected by the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA in NSW, to find a total of 248,382 crashes took place between 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2007. This included 43,911 injuries and 686 fatalities. This type of review is the first of its kind in Australia.

Are road safety improvements reaching all young drivers?

In Australia, most states have experienced decreases in young driver fatalities in recent years. In comparison to overall driver fatalities, this decrease is larger than the general population of drivers, suggesting road safety initiatives targeting young drivers may have been successful.

To examine this issue more closely, a trend analyses can account for fluctuations over time and determine if the seemingly downward trend is significant. Such an analysis can assess changes for different sub-groups, and crash outcomes can be explored to determine if trends are only significant for certain groups or crashes and not others.

Two recent studies were conducted to explore several trends in young driver crashes over a decade long period (1997-2007) in New South Wales. The studies explored data on 17-25 year-old drivers provided by the Roads and Traffic Authority of NSW and looked at rates per 10,000 licensed drivers.

The first study looked at trends based on the crash outcome: when the young driver was not injured, was injured, or died in the crash. Both young driver non-injury and young driver fatality rates decreased significantly. The average decreases were 4% and 5% per year respectively. Young driver injury rates increased to 2001 but then decreased thereafter.

The overall rates for male young drivers also decreased significantly (and moreso than for females) suggesting that initiatives to target this high-risk sub-group may have been successful. However, compared to drivers aged 21-25 years, rates for 17 year-olds and particularly also for 18-20 year olds were much higher, suggesting more needs to be done for these younger groups and not only with the youngest newly licensed drivers.

The second study looked more closely at the fatality trends by exploring differences for young drivers living in urban, regional and rural areas and in low, moderate and high socioeconomic (SES) areas. The only significant decreasing trend was for young drivers living in urban areas. Overall, the fatality rates were much higher for youth living in rural areas and in low SES areas compared to their urban and high SES counterparts. High posted speed limits and fatigue were significant contributing factors for these fatalities, as was drink driving and seatbelt non-use for the rural youth and driving older cars for the low SES youth. These are modifiable factors and so initiatives to address these issues should be supported and promoted to reduce these disparities.

In addition, the rate of young driver fatalities at night (10pm to 5am) did not change in this second study, accounting for 30-40% of fatalities. This further supports a role for night-time driving restrictions in New South Wales for newly-licensed drivers.

Potential issues

Data were available to 2007 so it is unknown whether these trends may have changed recently.

Despite that many potential confounding variables were available in the dataset (as recorded by police), other factors that were not measured may have also impacted on the trends.  For example, risky driving behaviours have been shown in other studies to be more common among rural and low SES drivers but it is not known how these contributed to the crashes or may have changed over time.

This work is the only recent Australian research to look at these trends and so it is unknown whether these findings apply to other states and territories, but these issues are worthy of attention in other jurisdictions and should be kept in mind when considering ‘one-size-fits-all’ approaches to young driver safety.

Factbase recommendation

Overall the findings are encouraging that young driver crashes, including young driver fatalities, are decreasing, but there are several inequities in the findings. While graduated driver licensing particularly targets restrictions in the first year of licensure, more might need to be done for successive years (particularly the 18-20 year old group). Night time driving restrictions are needed to reduce the disproportionately high crash rate at night. Targeted initiatives are also needed to reduce disparities for young drivers living in rural and low SES areas. Initiatives to address driving on high speed roads, fatigue, drink driving, seatbelt non-use and older vehicles are likely to show benefits.

References

Anderson R & Long A (2004). Trends in state comparisons of young driver fatalities. Report by the Centre for Automotive Safety and the University of Adelaide, October, available at: http://www.brake.org.au/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=71iu1jfkGnI%3D&tabid=62&mid=550&language=en-AU [accessed 16/06/10].

Chen H-Y, Senserrick T, Chang HY, Ivers RQ, Martiniuk ALC, Boufous S, Norton R (2010). Road crash trends for young drivers in New South Wales, Australia from 1997 to 2007. Traffic Injury Prevention, 11(1), 8-15.

Chen H-Y, Senserrick T, Martiniuk ALC, Ivers RQ, Boufous S, Chang HY, Norton R (2010). Fatal crash trends for Australian young drivers 1997-2007: geographic and socioeconomic differentials. Journal of Safety Research, 41, 123-128.

Hartley D (2004). Rural health disparities, population health, and rural culture. American Journal of Public Health, 94(10), 1675−1678.

Turrell G & Mathers CD (2000). Socioeconomic status and health in Australia. Medical Journal of Australia, 172(9), 434−438.

Does psychological distress increase crash risk for young drivers?

‘Psychological distress’ is a mental health state that includes symptoms of both depression and anxiety. There are several reasons why a link between psychological distress and motor vehicle crash might exist.  People who are experiencing psychological distress  may have physical and cognitive impairments related to slower reaction times, which could increase the risk of a crash when driving. Symptoms such as disturbed sleep and poor concentration, which often go hand-in-hand with psychological distress, can also affect driving.  Some  medications taken for psychological distress may also impair alertness and driving ability. It has also been shown that people experiencing psychological distress are more likely to misuse alcohol or drugs and potentially engage in physical self-harm. As self-harm has recently been shown to significantly increase young drivers’ crash risk, this also led to the question as to  whether psychological distress is also related to higher crash risk.

Previous research on this issue has shown both increased and decreased risk of crash related to psychological distress.  The quality of these past studies has, however, been limited, with nearly all studies measuring both psychological distress and crash risk at the same point in time so that it is not possible to know which one may have come first – particularly difficult since we know that having a crash is linked to subsequent psychological distress in some individuals.  Also these past studies were not able to control for important potential confounders such as exposure to driving, alcohol and drug use or having had a previous crash.

A new Australian study has examined psychological distress among young drivers before they crash, and looked at associations between this and their risk of crash up to two years later – also controlling for  important confounders such as time spent driving each week and alcohol/other drug use. In this study of 20,822 newly licensed NSW drivers aged 17-24 years, no increased risk of any crash type (including a single vehicle crash) was observed for youth experiencing psychological distress compared to those not experiencing psychological distress. In fact, there was a protective effect for those experiencing a moderate level of psychological distress – that is they were less likely to have a crash.  Given this finding and the lack of strong research indicating otherwise, this suggests initiatives to address psychological distress generally are not a priority to reduce crash risk among young drivers.  However, as research has demonstrated increased risk of crashing for young drivers who engage in self-harm , interventions for that group are more likely to have an effect on crash risk.

What are the potential issues?

While this latest finding of no relationship between psychological distress and increased crash risk is drawn from only one study, it is a high quality study. Nonetheless, as psychological distress was only measured in one point in time and can vary over time, future studies would benefit from measuring  psychological distress at several points in time and the impact on risk of crashes.

Factbase Recommendation

No protective initiatives are needed to address psychological distress and crash risk, however action should be taken for those who report self-harm.

References

Blows S, Ivers RQ, Connor J, Ameratunga S, Woodward M, Norton R. Marijuana use and car crash injury. Addiction, 2005;100:605–11.

Brunnauer A, Laux G, Geiger E, Soyka M, Möller HJ. Antidepressants and driving ability: Results from a clinical study. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2006;67:1776–81.

Bulmash EL, Moller HJ, Kavumov L, Shen J, Wang X, Shapiro CM. Psychomotor disturbance in depression: Assessment using a driving simulator paradigm. Journal of Affective Disorders, 2006;93:213–8.

Connor J, Norton R, Ameratunga S, Robinson E, Civil I, Dunn R, Bailey J, Jackson R. Driver sleepiness and risk of serious injury to car occupants: Population based case control study. British Medical Journal, 2002;324:1125.

Herman H, Saxena S, Moodie R (Eds). Promoting mental health: concepts, emerging evidence, practice. Report of the World Health Organization Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse in collaboration with the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation and the University of Melbourne 2005 [Online]. Available at: http://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/en/. Accessed March 26, 2009.

Martiniuk ALC, Glozier N, Senserrick T, Ivers RQ, Patton GC, Lam LT, Williamson A, Stevenson M, Norton R, Woodward M.  Psychological distress: Does it increase risk of motor vehicle crash in young drivers?  Journal of Adolescent Health. Epub May 18, 2010.

This unexpected finding from researchers at The George Institute, found that slight psychological distress among young drivers, which affects around 30% of youths, may actually make them safer drivers.

Psychological distress encompasses both symptoms of depression and anxiety. The research, which was published today in the Journal of Adolescent Health says that young drivers with high levels of distress were neither at an increased or reduced risk of crash.

“Earlier studies may have overestimated the risk of psychological distress on young driver crashes. Our data, from the largest study of young drivers ever conducted, did not find that high levels of distress were related to increased crash risk – as other previous studies have suggested. Actually, results showed that moderate levels of psychological distress may even protect a young driver from crashing”, said lead author of the research Dr Alexandra Martiniuk, The George Institute.

Until now, previous smaller studies have been unable to rule out the possibility that drivers with emotional and psychological distress may spend less time driving, and as a result reported conflicting findings.  This new study by Dr Martiniuk et al is the first large study to assess psychological distress in young drivers and then follow them two years into the future to see if they crashed. The study also controlled for the time spent behind the wheel.

“These results are particularly interesting, in that they show a moderate amount of psychological distress may actually protect young drivers against having a crash. Moderate levels of emotional distress may cause young drivers to be more vigilant when they are driving”, added Dr Martiniuk.

These results are part of a series of analyses from the DRIVE study, which is the largest study of young drivers ever undertaken and was funded by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council, NRMA Motoring and Services, and NRMA-ACT Road Safety trust and the Roads and Traffic Authority of NSW. The DRIVE study recruited over 20,822 young drivers holding red P-plates in NSW aged 17-24 years and prospectively examined their crashes reported to police for a two year period. The overall aim of the DRIVE study is to investigate the risk factors in motor vehicle-related crashes and injuries among young drivers and to find ways to improve the safety of young drivers and help make roads safer for all users.

This particular analysis assessed the relationship between psychological distress and risk of motor vehicle crashes among young drivers. Additional results due to be released from the DRIVE study during 2009/2010 include: pre-licensing driving experience, training and education, and sleep habits.

“Self-harm is a significant issue for young people in Australia. We now know that this also impacts considerably on young driver safety, as we found that those drivers who engaged in self-harm were at a 40% increased risk of a crash”, said author Dr Alexandra Martiniuk, The George Institute.

Self harm is the deliberate injuring of oneself and includes cutting, attempted hanging and poisoning. Internationally, research shows that up to 17% of people aged 14 and 25 years self-harm, although there is known to be significant under-reporting of self-harm behaviours.

The study reports that self-harm was more common among those study participants who were female, Australian-born, lived in rural or regional areas, spent more time driving per week, slept fewer hours compared to other drivers and those who reported high levels of drug and alcohol use.

According to Dr Martiniuk, “A particularly worrying trend shown in our findings is that most of the self-harm related crashes involved multiple vehicles. This amplifies the danger from these crashes, as it is not only the safety of young drivers who engage in self-harm at an increased risk, but the safety of all road users”, she added.

The results of this study highlight an important need for programs managing road behaviour in young people with poor mental health. Further research on this topic will be essential.  In the interim, the authors of this study (including psychiatrists and youth psychologists) believe the first step is raising awareness of the increased risk of crash for this sub-group by informing general practitioners, teachers, parents and youth groups, so that they can help identify self-harming behaviour and help young people seek appropriate treatment for this behaviour.

These results are part of a series of analyses from the DRIVE study, which is the largest study of young drivers ever undertaken and was funded by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council, NRMA Motoring and Services, and NRMA-ACT Road Safety trust and the Roads and Traffic Authority of NSW. The DRIVE study recruited over 20,822 young drivers holding red P-plates in NSW aged 17-24 years and prospectively examined their crashes reported to police for a two year period. The overall aim of the DRIVE study is to investigate the risk factors in motor vehicle-related crashes and injuries among young drivers and to find ways to improve the safety of young drivers and help make roads safer for all users.

This particular analysis investigated the risk that intentional self-harm poses for motor vehicle crashes among young drivers. Additional results due to be released from the DRIVE study during 2009/2010 include: rural and socioeconomic risk factors for young drivers, pre-licensing driving experience, training and education, poor mental health and subsequent crash risk, and sleep habits.

For further information, please contact:
Emma Orpilla – Public Relations Manager, The George Institute for International Health
Tel: +612 8238 2424/ Mobile: +61410 411 983
Fax: +612 9657 0301/ email: eorpilla@george.org.au
www.thegeorgeinstitute.org

The George Institute is a world renowned health and medical research institute, focused on the prevention and management of chronic disease and injury. The George conducts high-impact research across a broad health landscape and is a respected voice among global policy makers. The George has conducted major global applied research projects and innovative community-based programs from bases in Australia, China and India. In 2009, the Institute celebrates a decade of discovery, innovation and impact. www.thegeorgeinstitute.org

In Australia up to 4,700 young people are hospitalised per year following a crash.  There are 24,087 young people hospitalised per year following self harm.  But is there a link?
Young people are particularly at risk for mental health problems.  These problems may lead to self-harm and suicide.  Deliberate motor vehicle crashes may be caused by young drivers as a means of self-harm or suicide.  Other factors that are associated with self-harm also might increase the risk of crashing, e.g. alcohol, disturbed sleep, and poor impulse control.
To date, most studies have looked at young people who have died in crashes.  The mental health status of those drivers was determined after their deaths. However, a new Australian study has examined the mental health status of young drivers before they crash, and looked at associations between this and their risk of crashes not causing death.  In this study, newly licensed NSW drivers aged 17-24 were asked about their self-harm behaviour.  Of 20,822 surveyed, 871 (4%) of young drivers engaged in self-harm behaviours (such as cutting, burning, self-battering, poisoning and self-harm with lethal intent).  Self-harm was most commonly reported by:

• The youngest drivers (17 year olds)
• Females
• Those born in Australia
• Rural and regional drivers
• Those who had driven more
• Those reporting more risk taking behaviour
• Those with a history of drug or alcohol abuse
• Those with less hours of sleep per night.

This Australian study found that young drivers, who had previously reported self-harm behaviours, were at a 42% higher risk of crash than those who didn’t report the behaviours.  This increased risk remained (37% higher risk) even after accounting for other factors  such as age, sex, average driving hours per week, previous crashes, psychological distress, and amount of sleep.  Of the 871 young drivers who reported self-harm, 88 (10%) had at least one crash and 84% of those who had a crash were involved in multiple-vehicle incidents affecting other road users.
Reducing the risk of crash in young drivers is important.  The results of this study highlight a need for programs managing road behaviour in young people with poor mental health.  There is some evidence that programs designed to improve the general resilience of young people can also reduce the risk of road-related risky behaviours.  Further research on this topic will be essential.  In the interim, general practitioners, teachers, parents and youth groups need to identify self-harming behaviour so that they can help self-harmers seek appropriate treatment.

Factbase Recomendations

Young drivers who engage in self-harm are at increased risk of crash.  Effective interventions to address self-harm should be expanded to include potential vehicle-related risk.  These interventions should be assessed to determine if they decrease the risk of crash in this group of young drivers.

References

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). Young Australians: their health and well-being 2007. Available: http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/10451  (accessed 11 Nov 2009).

Blows S, Ivers RQ, Connor J, Ameratunga S, Woodward M & Norton R. Marijuana use and car crash injury. Addiction 2005;100:605-11.

Connor J, Norton R, Ameratunga S & Jackson R.  The contribution of alcohol to serious car crash injuries. Epidemiology 2004;15:337-44.

Connor J, Norton R, Ameratunga S, Robinson E, Civil I, Dunn R, Bailey J & Jackson R. Driver sleepiness and risk of serious injury to car occupants: population based case control study. British Medical Journal, 2002;324:1125.

Dahl RE. Biological, developmental and neurobehavioral factors relevant to adolescent driving risks. American Journal of Preventive Medicince, 2008;35:S278-84.

Evans J, Platts H, Liebenau A.  Impulsiveness and deliberate self-harm: a comparison of “first timers” and “repeaters”. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 1996;93:378-80.

Griffin KW, Botvin GJ, Nichols TR.  Long-term follow-up effects of a school-based drug abuse prevention program on adolescent risky driving. Prevention Science 2004;5:207-12.

Herman H, Saxena S, Moodie R, editors. Promoting mental health: concepts, emerging evidence, practice. Report of the World Health Organization Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse in collaboration with the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation and the University of Melbourne. 2005. Available: http://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/en/ (accessed 2008 Nov 11).

Hilakivi I, Veilahti J, Asplund P, Sinivuo J, Laitinen L & Koskenvuo K.  A sixteen-factor personality test for predicting automobile driving accidents of young drivers. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 1989;21:413-8.

Ivers RQ, Blows SR, Stevenson MR, Norton RN, Williamson A, Eisenbruch M, Woodward M, Lam L, Palamara P & Wang J. A cohort study of 20 822 young drivers: the DRIVE study methods and population. Injury Prevention, 2006;12:385-9.

Martiniuk ALC, Ivers RQ, Glozier N, Patton GC, Lam LT, Boufous S, Senserrick T, Williamson A, Stevenson M & Norton R. Self-harm and risk of motor vehicle crashes in youth: the DRIVE prospective cohort study. Canadian Medical Association Journal( accepted 25 June 2009 in press).

Ohberg A, Penttila A, Lonnqvist J. Driver suicides. British Journal of Psychiatry 1997;171:468-72.
Skegg K. Self-harm. Lancet 2005;366:1471-83.

School-based driver education programs have a long and ill-famed history in Australia. They began to grow popular and spread widely in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s and soon began to feature in Australia, although typically not within the actual schools, but as courses that school-based learners and newly-licensed drivers could attend.

By the 1970s, driver education programs had grown in popularity when research in the United States cast doubt on their effectiveness. The landmark “DeKalb county study” at first seemed to show that students of the driver education program in DeKalb county schools went on to gain a licence and had fewer crashes than students who did not attend the program. However, an incentive or “bonus” for participating in the program was that graduates could get their licence six months earlier than non-participants. When this extra “exposure” time was taken into account, those participants actually had a higher risk of crash.

Some research was also done in Australia (Victoria) around the same time to see if there was any benefit of having programs at a specialist facility – which were costly to build and maintain. The results found no improvements over teaching students on-the-road in “real world” traffic. This led to a withdrawal of Government funding and support for the facilities.

Despite these findings, driver education programs have remained popular in Australia and are often sought out by young people and their parents. Almost every decade since those early studies, reviews have been conducted to see if the situation has changed, but there has still been limited support to suggest driver education has any impact on crashes. Unfortunately, the lack of clearly findings is mostly due to a lack of good quality research, so it is still unclear whether any recent advances have improved outcomes.

Support for driver education

Many road safety practitioners question why driver education is expected to reduce crashes. Behaviour change is what is really needed – not just increased awareness, knowledge and understanding, which tends to be the focus of driver education. Sometimes just knowing the risks is not enough to prevent the risk behaviour – think about smoking and binge drinking.

This does not mean that driver education is unimportant, however. Driver education works well in teaching learners about road rules, how to manage their car in traffic and how to pass the driving tests for licensure – which most learners do on the first attempt.

Further, many new programs have tried to take on board the criticisms and recommendations of the reviews. This includes going beyond a focus on knowledge to a focus on changing behaviour. These programs teach strategies and tips on how to avoid risks or deal with pressure to take risks, such as “safe partying” programs that also teach young people to look out for their friends and make sure a designated driver stays sober. This also includes “whole-of-community” programs, where sectors of the whole community engage in the program’s delivery and demonstrate that everyone shares responsibility for safety on the roads, with learners sharing part of that responsibility.

These “best practice” programs have recently been shown to reduce the likelihood of having traffic violations in a large, good quality study in the United States. An Australian study of over 20,000 new drivers in New South Wales has also found that those who participated in one example of such a program in Year 10 or 11 went on to have fewer crashes early on their provisional licence compared to others in the study. Volunteer bias for participating in the program was unlikely as students attended as part of a regular school day. It was not possible to know however whether those who had completed the program and then had crashes were not well-represented in the study. Therefore, there is still a need for high quality research to demonstrate whether there truly are crash reduction benefits.

Potential issues

A great concern in relation to driver education programs is regarding courses at specialty facilities that teach learners how to manage high speeds or get them into a skid and teach them how to correct it. While this “makes senses” as many young driver crashes involve loss of control, there have been very strong studies demonstrating that this approach is more likely to increase crash risk. When drivers feel confident in managing certain situations, they will no longer avoid those situations or just won’t slow down enough as they feel in control of the situation. This seems to be a particular concern for newly-licensed young drivers – if they don’t feel comfortable they will driver slower and take extra care and this is really what is needed. These “advanced skills” course can actually counter this caution and instead exposure the young driver to a higher crash risk.

Another great concern is regarding programs that will still give a time discount to licensing – like the early DeKalb study. Despite repeated research showing that this greatly increases crash risk, over 20 states in the United States still allow young people to get their licence early in they take a driver education program. There is no known program that could come close to protecting these young people from crashes enough to allow such a time discount. Thankfully this has been a rare approach in Australia.

Factbase recommendation

School-based driver education can be very successful in increasing knowledge of road rules and driving risks, as well as teaching how to manage a car in traffic and how to pass the driving tests. There is insufficient evidence, however, to support driver education programs as a means of reducing crash risk. There are new promising approaches, including whole-of-community programs that focus on teaching strategies to avoid risk behaviour, but more research is needed.

References

Christie R (2001). The effectiveness of driver training as a road safety measure: A review of the literature (Report No 01/03). Melbourne, Victoria: Royal Automobile Club of Victoria.

Griffin KW, Botvin GJ, Nichols TR (2004). Long-term follow-up effects of a school-based drug abuse prevention program on adolescent risky driving. Prevention Science, 5(3), 207-212.

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (2009). US licensing systems for young drivers [available at http://www.iihs.org/laws/pdf/us_licensing_systems.pdf].

Ivers R, Senserrick T, Boufous S, Stevenson M, Chen H-Y, Woodward M, Norton R. Novice drivers’ risky driving behavior, risk perception, and crash risk: findings from the DRIVE study. American Journal of Public Health. Sep 2009;99(9):1638-1644.

Jones B (1993). The effectiveness of skid-car training for teenage novice drivers in Oregon. Drive and Motor Vehicle Services, Salem OR.

Katila A, Keskinen E, Hatakka M (1996). Conflicting goals of skid training. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 28(6), 785-789.

Ker K, Roberts I, Collier T, Renton F & Bunn F (2003). Post-licence driver education for the prevention of road traffic crashes (Cochrane Review). In: The Cochrane Library, Issue 3. Oxford: Update Software.

Keskinen E, Hatakka M, Katila A, Laapotti S (1002). Was the renewal of the driver-training successful? Psychological report, No. 94. University of Turku, Turku, Finland.

Lund AK, Williams AF & Zador P (1986). High school driver education: further evaluation of the DeKalb County study, Accident Analysis & Prevention, 18, 349-357.

Mayhew DR & Simpson HM (2002). The safety value of driver education and training. Injury Prevention, 8(Supp II), 3-8.

Mayhew DR (2007). Driver education and graduated licensing in North America: past, present, and future. Journal of Safety Research, 38, 229-235.

Redshaw S (2001). Changing driving behaviour – A cultural approach. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 36(4), 315-331.

Roberts I, Kwan I & the Cochrane Injuries Group Driver Education Reviewers (2003). School based driver education for the prevention of traffic crashes (Cochrane Review). In: The Cochrane Library, Issue 3. Oxford: Update Software.

Sanders N & Keskinen E (Eds) (2004). EU NovEV PROJECT. Evaluation of post-licence training schemes for novice drivers, final report. CIECA (International Commission of Driver Testing Authorities).

Senserrick TM (2007). Recent developments in young driver education and training in Australia. Journal of Safety Research, 38, 237-244.

Senserrick T, Haworth NL (2005). Review of literature regarding national and international young driver training, licensing and regulatory systems. MUARC Report 239. Monash University Accident Research Centre, Clayton VIC, June.

Senserrick T, Ivers R, Boufous S, Chen H-Y, Stevenson M, Norton R (2009). Young driver education programs that build resilience have potential to reduce road crashes: DRIVE prospective cohort study. Pediatrics, 124, 1287-1292. [Please note an erratum for this article: the website provided for additional details on the driver-focused program is incorrect; the program is different to that evaluated at the time of our study.]

Stock JR, Weaver JK, Ray HW, Brink JR & Sadoff MG (1983). Evaluation of safe performance secondary school driver education curriculum project: final report. DOT-HS-806-568. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Transportation.

Strang PM, Deutsch KB, James RS & Manders SM (1982). A comparison of on-road and off-road driver training (Report No. 1/82 SR). Hawthorn, Victoria: Road Safety & Traffic Authority.

Williams AF (2006). Young driver risk factors: successful and unsuccessful approaches for dealing with them and an agenda for the future. Injury Prevention, 12 (Suppl 1), i4-i8.

Woolley J (2000). In-car driver training at high schools: A literature review (Report No. 6/2000). Adelaide, Australia: Transport SA.

Motor vehicle crashes are the single leading cause of death of youth in Australia, and driver education programs are often sought by parents and young drivers to improve safety. But to date, there is little evidence that such programs reduce road crashes. Researchers from The George Institute assessed the impact of the Reduce Risk Increase Student Knowledge (RRISK) program on risk of crash in subsequent years.

“We found that young drivers in our study who attended the RRISK program had a 44% reduced risk of a car crash compared to others in the study. The program doesn’t just educate young people, but helps them to adopt safe behaviours. It arms them with strategies that ensure safe driving, such as managing pressure from peers, checking how much a designated driver has had to drink, planning a safe return from parties and generally encouraging them to make informed decisions about road safety,” said Dr Teresa Senserrick, The George Institute.

The program incorporates a whole-of-community approach that is broadly focused on reducing youth risk-taking rather than driving risks only. The program includes factual presentations, drama, peer education, real life experience with strong support from local businesses, university, police, ambulance, radio broadcaster and road safety organisations.

“This research suggests that such programs may be effective tools in managing risk in young drivers. However, while this research is indicating some promise, there is a need for further rigorous evaluation of such programs before they can be rolled out on a large scale,” added Dr Senserrick.

These results are part of a series of analyses from the DRIVE study, which is the largest survey of young drivers ever undertaken and was funded by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council, NRMA Motoring and Services, and NRMA-ACT Road Safety trust and the Roads and Traffic Authority of NSW. The DRIVE study recruited over 20,822 young drivers holding red P-plates in NSW aged 17-24 years and examined their crashes reported to police. The overall aim of the study is to investigate the risk factors in motor vehicle-related crashes and injuries among young drivers and to find ways to improve the safety of young drivers and help make roads safer for all users. The education program assessed comprised well-attended one-day courses supplemented with prior training workshops and on-going activities focused on reducing risk-taking or building resilience (see www.rrisk.com.au for more information).

This particular analysis investigated the benefits of young driver education programs. Additional results due to be released during 2009/2010 includes rural and socioeconomic factors for young drivers, pre-licensing driving experience, ethnicity, mental health, and sleep habits. Review the evidence on this topic in the youngdriverfactbase.

For further information, please contact:
Emma Orpilla – Public Relations, The George Institute for International Health
Tel: +612 9993 4500/ Mobile: +61410 411 983
Fax: +612 9993 4501/ email: eorpilla@george.org.au
www.thegeorgeinstitute.org.au

The George Institute is a world renowned health and medical research institute, focused on the prevention and management of chronic disease and injury. The George is affiliated with the University of Sydney and conducts high-impact research across a broad health landscape and is a respected voice among global policy makers. The George has conducted major global applied research projects and innovative community-based programs from bases in Australia, China and India. In 2009, the Institute celebrates a decade of discovery, innovation and impact. www.thegeorgeinstitute.org

The Young Driver Factbase is an online resource, containing up-to-date information on young driver safety and provides recommendations based on the best available research evidence. Visit www.youngdriverfactbase.com to see an overview of all the issues facing young drivers and the latest evidence investigating these factors such as high powered vehicles, driver distraction and restrictions.

Already the DRIVE study has released findings on the risky driving behaviours that young drivers undertake, putting them at an increased risk of crashing.

These results and other young driver issues will be discussed today at the launch of the Young Driver Factbase – www.youngdriverfactbase.com - a new online resource of young driver issues and research evidence.

Overall, young city drivers are more likely to crash due to the high-density of vehicles within urban settings. However, after conducting a survey of more than 20,000 young drivers, researchers identified young rural drivers to be at a far greater risk of single-vehicle crashes, which are more likely to result in serious injury than other crash types.

“We know that urban crashes with multiple vehicles take place more often due to the high volume cars on city roads. What we didn’t know was that young drivers in rural locations are actually at a much higher risk of having single-vehicle crashes, which are often fatal and in many cases avoidable”, said author Associate Professor Rebecca Ivers, The George Institute.

“Since our study found that young drivers on rural roads were more likely to crash as a result of curved roads and speeding,  efforts to reduce speeding behaviour and manage driving at curved road sections, such as speed cameras, and greater use of engineering measures to slow traffic are needed on rural roads”, Associate Professor Ivers added. The research was conducted by Huei-Yang Chen, PhD student in the Sydney School of Public Health, the University of Sydney.

These results are part of a series of analyses from the DRIVE study, which is the largest survey of young drivers undertaken, both in Australia and internationally.

Review the evidence on this topic on the youngdriverfactbase

The DRIVE study was funded by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council, NRMA Motoring and Services, and NRMA-ACT Road Safety trust and the Roads and Traffic Authority of NSW. The DRIVE study recruited over 20,822 young drivers holding red P-plates in NSW aged 17-24 years and followed all 20,822 young drivers for police-recorded crashes occurring over 2 years. The overall aim of the study is to investigate the risk factors in motor vehicle-related crashes and injuries among young drivers and to find ways to improve the safety of young drivers and help make roads safer for all users.

This particular analysis investigated the risk of various type of crash, by urban, regional and rural settings.

These results will be discussed from 9.30am Tuesday 22 September 2009 at the launch of the Young Driver Factbase – an online resource of all the issues facing young drivers, which presents the best research evidence. Interviews available from 11.30am.

For further information and to arrange interviews, please contact:

Emma Orpilla – Public Relations, The George Institute for International Health

Tel: +612 9993 4500/ Mobile: +61410 411 983

Fax: +612 9993 4501/ email: eorpilla@george.org.au

www.thegeorgeinstitute.org.au

The George Institute is a world renowned health and medical research institute, focused on the prevention and management of chronic disease and injury. The George conducts high-impact research across a broad health landscape and is a respected voice among global policy makers. The George has conducted major global applied research projects and innovative community-based programs from bases in Australia, China and India. In 2009, the Institute celebrates a decade of discovery, innovation and impact. www.thegeorgeinstitute.org

The Young Driver Factbase is an online resource, containing up-to-date information on young driver safety and provides recommendations based on the best available research evidence. Visit www.youngdriverfactbase.com to see an overview of all the issues facing young drivers and the latest evidence investigating these factors such as high powered vehicles, driver distraction and restrictions.

Already the DRIVE study has released findings on the risky driving behaviours that young drivers undertake, putting them at an increased risk of crashing.