Summary

This report represents a general set of tabulations for 1993 from the Serious Injury database compiled by the Federal Office of Road Safety (FORS). More specific review of the 1993 police serious crash data will be provided within FORS" annual statistical series Road Crash Resulting in Hospitalisation, together with analysis of hospital data for that year about road crash admissions.

Summary

This study reviewed what economic appraisals have been performed on road safety measures within the priority areas identified in the National Road Safety Strategy and Action Plan, and appraised their methodological soundness. The focus has been to establish the cost-effectiveness of measures, and to discuss the role of cost-effectiveness analysis in relation to the current reliance on cost-benefit analysis for resource allocation decisions.

Summary

Analysis of the benefits of new countermeasures are commonly used when setting road safety priorities. This study set out to estimate the likely benefits if Australia was to adopt a new dynamic side impact regulation similar to the current FMVSS 214 regulation in the USA or the proposed ECE Regulation 95 in Europe. These two standards are fundamentally different and likely to result in different countermeasures and benefits.

Summary

Although pedestrian injury is a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality, little is known about the determinants of child pedestrian injury rates. In particular we lack reliable measures of children's exposure to traffic. In collaboration with an international group this study aimed to obtain population-based estimates of children's traffic exposure, in particular the numbers of streets crossed per day, by performing a questionnaire-based survey in a random sample of primary schools in Melbourne.

Summary

When buses and automobiles are involved in a collision or emergency braking, many injuries that may occur can be attributed to passenger impact with unpadded or inadequately padded structures such as steel seat framing and stanchions.

The Australian Design Rules (ADR) provide some guidelines for the prevention of lifethreatening injuries caused by head impact, but neglect to address the problems of "lessserious" head injuries such as fractures and non-fatal facial (disfiguring) injuries.

Summary

This report, based upon data in the Federal Office of Road Safety Fatality File database, analyses various aspects of medical outcomes resulting from fatal road crashes in Australia in 1988. In particular the report describes the nature of injuries suffered by those killed and quantifies the degree to which certain factors contribute to crash survival or, in the case of those killed, the timing of death. There is also a brief section examining crashes in which death resulted from low severity injuries.

Summary

This report presents the findings of a study aimed at developing an overall picture of the drink driving elements that comprise the social contextual influence in Australia. Open ended discussions were held with key opinion leaders in the field of research and policy related to drink driving. In addition a survey which was mailed to a large sample of persons who were identified by snowball sampling as experts and/or workers in the defined areas.

Summary

Lower limb injuries occur to front seat occupants in more than one in three head-on casualty crashes. A study was undertaken to determine the various types of injuries, the sources of injury inside the vehicle, and the mechanisms of injury. This information was to help guide future regulation effort aimed at reducing the frequency and severity of these injuries and to make recommendations about how these injuries might be mitigated in future vehicle design.

Summary

The Graduated Licensing Survey reported here formed part of the Evaluation of Australian Graduated Licensing Schemes (Haworth, 1994, [CR136]), one of the components of the Young Driver Research Program which Monash University Accident Research Centre undertook for the Federal Government's Road Safety Research Initiative. The survey focussed on knowledge, attitudes, compliance and perceptions of enforceability, and social costs associated with the components of the graduated licensing system.