3rd Indigenous Road Safety Forum, Broome, Western Australia, October 2006

Summary

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, with assistance from the Office of Road Safety in Western Australia, convened the 3rd Indigenous Road Safety Forum from 23-25 October 2006 in Broome.

About 60 people from a range of professions in the health, safety, justice and education sectors attended the forum.

Forum delegates reacted positively to the opportunity to work with and develop communication networks with their road safety colleagues to identify further actions to improve road safety outcomes for Indigenous people.

Delegates discussed issues identified by a previous forum in 2004 and recommendations of a research study Australian Indigenous Road Safety - 2005 Update commissioned by the Australian Government. Issues related to the need to:

• improve the accuracy of national road trauma statistics
• increase driver licensing rates
• involve indigenous communities in road safety efforts
• improve road safety behaviours relating to seatbelt wearing, alcohol use, riding in open load spaces and pedestrians
• research into attitudes toward health and injury
• conduct formal evaluations of initiatives
• apply enforcement activity to address known risky practices.

There were workshop discussions held at the forum to address these issues, resulting in a large number of recommendations made.