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Time to re-write driver training?
Road safety could become a compulsory, stand alone subject in English schools under proposals that would see a total re-write of the country’s driver training system. Without a pass mark in the school-based road safety course, it would be made impossible for anyone to secure a future job that involved professional driving or the use of a company car.
The radical proposals—and as yet they are still only proposals—have just been outlined in a roads safety strategy review published by England’s Department for Transport. As part of the training shake up, the department wants what it calls “fundamental reform” in the way people learn to drive so that “pre-driver eduction” becomes an essential element and that the testing and maintaining of driving skills becomes a life-long program.
The proposals not only aim to cut the road toll particularly among young people but also to establish the infrastructure to support a population of aging drivers as well as provide remedial driving courses for those who need them. According to England’s Road Safety Minister, Dr Stephen Ladyman, while driving instructors under the existing system did a “very good job”, the system within which they operated no longer reflected the demands of the modern world.
“Educating young drivers is a serious issue,” he said. “We know that of the fatal accidents where blame could be assigned, young drivers were nearly 12 times more likely to be at fault than older drivers.”
He said while in recent years changes had been made to driver training, they had not gone far enough. “We must change perceptions about driving and road safety,” Dr Ladyman said. “The only way to achieve this is to educate young people in a different way about the dangers of driving badly, and so positively influence their long-term behaviour and habits. And that means introducing a more rigorous system of instruction and testing.”
The scan also showed:
Virtual dangers?
It has long been argued that TV violence encourages aggressive behaviour. Now research psychologists at Germany’s Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich believe they have found evidence of a link between aggressive road racing computer games and real-life dangerous driving. Using a study group of 198 men and women the psychologists found that those who played more virtual car-racing games were more likely to report that they drove aggressively and got into more accidents. Few reported that virtual racing had led them to become more cautious drivers. The findings, just published in the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Experimental Psychology, also found that men only needed to play one virtual racing game for them to take “significantly higher risks” in computer-simulated traffic situations. Those participants who played computer games in which breaking road rules was necessary to win also reported having more thoughts about taking risks when they were actually out driving. According to the authors: “Practitioners in the field of road traffic safety should bear in mind the possibility that racing games indeed make road traffic less safe, not least because game players are mostly young adults, acknowledged as the highest accident-race group.”
Visible dangers
If computer games can influence driving behaviour (see above) what about video advertisements flashed across 17-metre wide plasma TV screens on top of 25-metre high poles erected alongside highways? About 500 of the so-called “digital billboards” have made their appearance in the US and safety authorities are starting to worry that they have become a driving distraction. A recent study by America’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that “distractions” in which drivers spent more than two seconds looking anywhere other than the road ahead contributed to 22% of the country’s road crashes. Now the US Federal Highway Administration is to part-fund a study to determine whether the new digital billboards are really a driving hazard.
Common link
No matter which country they come from it is young people with economically disadvantaged backgrounds who are most likely to be killed in road crashes, according to the World Health Organisation. Although each year the vast majority of the 400,000 one to 24-year-olds who are killed do so on the roads in Africa and the Middle East, the WHO statistics show there is still a common thread that links the majority of road deaths in all countries—“economic disadvantage”. WHO’s report, “Youth and Road Safety” found road traffic collisions cost an estimated $US 518 billion globally in material, health and other expenditure and that for many low- and middle-income countries, the cost of road crashes represents between 1–1.5% of GNP. “The bulk of these crashes are predictable—and preventable,” the report said.
Foreign rules
Of course not all people who are killed on African and Middle East roads (see above) are African or Arabian. Many are foreign visitors—as an analysis of US State Department figures has revealed. Although the analysis, published by the Campaign for Global Road Safety, is only concerned with the road deaths of US citizens, it does demonstrate that poor road safety in any country has repercussions far beyond that country’s boarders. The analysis shows that nearly a third of all deaths suffered over-seas by healthy Americans are caused by road crashes—and 77% of them occur in low and middle-income countries. For Americans, that makes road trauma the single greatest risk to international travel. So how do you survive a country with a poor road safety record? The campaign has some tips:
- Plan Ahead—know your route and method of transportation ahead of time;
- Don’t travel at night—low visibility and differing driving customs (like lack of headlight use) greatly increase your risk of a crash;
- Use mass transportation—especially trains and subways which are generally safer than driving yourself in an unfamiliar environment;
- Pay attention to traffic patterns and local customs—watch the local residents, especially as a pedestrian and at intersections and know the laws and customs before your trip; and
- Follow the same safety rules you follow at home—always wear your safety belt, never drink and drive and do not speed.
Helmet debate continues
European research into the value of making cyclists wear helmets has cast a small question mark over the real benefits of Australian laws. The investigation was conducted by the London-based Cochrane Library, which specialises in the collection and analysis of high quality health care information. In a media statement Cochrane said while helmet laws around the world seemed to decrease head injuries among children, it had not been possible to discover whether such laws had caused unintended consequences—and that Australia was the case in point. During the investigation researchers found that Australia had no evidence to show whether a reduction of head injuries among children was as a result of wearing helmets—or because fewer children were riding bikes. Anneliese Spinks, from Griffith University’s School of Medicine told the researchers that there had been no high quality studies that had tested the scenario. “Legislation on its own will probably have little effect unless it is enforced, and we still need to determine the relationship between police enforcement of laws, helmet use and cycling rates,” Ms Spinks told the researchers.
Costly calls
Having caught nearly 74,000 motorists illegally using mobile phones while driving, England has decided to raise its fixed penalty for the breach from 30 Pounds Sterling to 60 Pounds. Any motorists who want to challenge such cases in court will risk a maximum fine of 1000 Pounds. But while it is the drivers who are fined, there are always at least two people involved in phone conversations. In an attempt to influence those whose calls reach drivers, the Department for Transport has just launched a new safety campaign. The message is simple: “If they’re driving, kill the conversation.”
