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Indigenous Road Safety

Indigenous Road Safety Forum, Cairns, Queensland, 29-31October 2008

The department is arranging the 4th Indigenous Road Safety Forum in conjunction with Queensland Transport.

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

Road Safety, 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 sixty 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. These will be further developed with facilitators who led the workshop discussions and incorporated into a forum report as early as possible.

Further Information:

The National Road Safety Strategy 2001-2010 and associated two-year Action Plans provide a framework for coordinating the road safety initiatives of Commonwealth, State, Territory and local governments as well as other organisations capable of influencing road safety outcomes. Road crashes are a major cause of death for Indigenous people. The Strategy calls for improvement of safety for Indigenous road users. As a part of its coordination role under the Strategy, the department has supported continued collaboration among jurisdictions on indigenous road safety issues by:

  • providing funding and administrative support for Indigenous Safety Forums in June 2002, September 2004 and October 2006;
  • chairing an interjurisdictional Indigenous Road Safety Working Group;
  • providing $25,000 to assist the development and marketing of a video and CD road safety resource for use in Indigenous communities (Corrugations to Highways); and
  • funding a scoping study in 2002 of indigenous road safety to examine current databases and research and identify successful Indigenous road safety initiatives, and an update for 2005.
  • contributing money to help fund development of the HealthInfoNet Indigenous Road Safety Website to allow the national sharing of information about indigenous road safety. The website was launched on 2 December 2005 with a joint media release by Minister Jim Lloyd and transport ministers from Western Australia, New South Wales, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland.

Reports and Papers

Grants

The following are details of a successful Road Safety research grant for 2005-2006.

Aboriginal People Travelling Well. Ms Kim O'Donnell, Flinders University
Cost: $24,943

This study aims to assess the impact of the lack of access to safe and reliable transport in aboriginal communities as a factor in the acceptance of high-risk behaviours. It will consider urban and rural communities, and consider the range of issues that influence the decision to accept unsafe transport choices.

Road Safety Material

  • Corrugations to Highways, Aboriginal Road Safety Video, National Aboriginal Road Safety Video Project Team.
  • CD record of proceedings of 2004 Indigenous Road Safety Forum (includes an audio record, powerpoint presentations and photos) Available from the department: please telephone 1800 026 349 or email roadsafety@infrastructure.gov.au
  • HealthInfoNet website
  • Road Safety in Australia - A publication commemorating World Health Day 2004 [PDFPDF: 91 KB] Chapter 28, Indigenous people, pp 228-233.

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Last Updated: 7 August, 2008