Drive for road safety

He Kitenga, 2005

Inexperienced New Zealand drivers are injuring themselves with alarming regularity.

But, due to a lack of research, there has not been the scientific evidence necessary to change policy – such as the graduated driver licensing system – to help improve safety among this high-risk group.

However, a collaborative follow-up study of 5,000 newly-licensed drivers, instigated by Otago’s Injury Prevention Research Unit (IPRU), is now seeking to provide the information necessary to direct Government decisions.

IPRU road safety research co-ordinator and principal investigator Dr Dorothy Begg, is joined in the study by Professor John Langley, Rebecca Brookland, Associate Professor John Broughton and Dr Shanthi Ameratunga. They are recruiting and will follow the newly learner-licensed drivers, 1,000 of whom will be Mäori, for at least four years.

Begg, an IPRU senior research fellow, says $1.7 million funding from the Health Research Council, ACC and Road Safety Trust will cover this time span, but hopes the study will run for at least another four years. “This is not a quick-fix study, it requires a long-term time investment.”

The primary objective is to identify risk and protective factors for traffic-related injury among newly-licensed drivers and, from this, recognise factors that can be targeted to reduce these injuries.

Secondary objectives are to undertake a separate analysis for Mäori participants, to conduct a study on the role of parents as supervisors of young drivers, and to evaluate driver training/education programmes available to newly-licensed drivers.

Wide consultation with Mäori community groups, personnel from road safety agencies, and researchers from around the world have helped determine what data is required to meet the study objectives, and to select procedures for the study. A baseline questionnaire covers topics such as background demographics, pre-licence driving experience, motivations for driving and licensing, expectations of the graduated driver licensing system, alcohol and other drug use, risk-taking and aggressive behaviour.

Study participants are being traced using the Driver Licence Register, with follow-up interviews coinciding with the restricted and full licence tests. The data is confidential and consent is also being sought to allow researchers to access traffic crash, conviction and infringement records.

Recruiting is taking place in Dunedin, Otago/Southland, Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay and Auckland where the pilot study took place. “The idea is to get a balance of urban, rural, north, south.”

It is expected to take at least a year to recruit the required number of study participants. For the study researchers, the injury rate of newly-licensed drivers is no more pertinent now than decades ago when the graduated licensing system was introduced. What is new is that, in the future, data will be available to help prevent injuries occurring with such frequency on the country’s roads.