In 2013 RAAG commenced a project in partnership with four high schools, with IT and media classes preparing TV type commercials, or You tube video clips, as part of the curriculum, on the dangers of distracted driving, giving a practical focus to the subject, with the best examples being shown at assembly to the whole school.
Local media supported the project, interviewed students, RAAG Road Safety Coordinator [RSC] addressed students on the dangers of distracted driving, ABC media staff assisted by giving a critique on the videos produced, the students in these classes had a sound understanding of all the risks involved, as they also researched videos worldwide.
The project was extremely successful where teachers embraced the idea, particularly if they had attended past students’ funerals resulting from car crashes, the project needs to be driven by Principals, it was found the practical side did fit well within current curriculum in IT and media classes, however it was very time consuming for RAAG RSC to run the project.
RSC used the Book: Driver Distraction, Theory, Effects and Mitigation, Edited by Michael A Regan, John D Lee, Kristie L Young CRC Press
Helpful Links
nsc.org/safety_road/Distracted_Driving
Extremely good links, studies, research, reviews, data, surveys
cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/distracted_driving/index.html
Very good US govt. site
dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures/fast_facts/ffdl28.htm
California Govt site
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811650.pdf
US Dept Transport. 2010
Glancing away from the road to look at an advertisement for more than two seconds can double your risk of accident, according to a new report [PDF] released this week by Austroads.
However, roadside advertising can also help to keep drivers alert on long journeys.
The report assesses the distraction risk posed by roadside advertising. It’s estimated that 30 per cent of all crashes involve driver distraction, with almost a third of these cases caused by a distraction from outside the vehicle.
The Austroads report included a series of guidelines to minimise dangerous distractions caused by roadside advertising.
The guidelines include positioning advertisements so they do not draw road users’ eyes away from the road and avoiding digital displays that give the impression of movement.
CAN a tweet stop a teenage boy from drink-driving? Can a wistful image about grief on Pinterest lead a young woman to tell her boyfriend to slow down behind the wheel?
Victoria’s Transport Accident Commission desperately hopes so, having admitted after the deaths of two boys and a girl in a car smash in Coolaroo just before midnight on Wednesday that its conventional road safety campaigns fail to influence many young people.
The commission is set to launch a social media campaign next month, which will try to use teen peer pressure to discourage risky driving.
“There’s always going to be a small minority that we can’t get through to,” TAC chief executive Janet Dore said after the smash, “unless the community and peer pressure exerts its influence, because clearly the TAC can’t do 100 per cent of the work.”
To that end, the new social media campaign will seek to have young people do the work themselves.
Called “Home Safe”, it will be launched in the Christmas season and will call on teens to produce their own road safety slogans, specifically targeted intervention-style at their friends. For example, digital roadside signs would tweet personal messages for people known to be driving along that road.
24/09/13 Daily Mercury:
Monash University Accident Research Centre researchers found children were 12 times more distracting to the driver than talking on the phone.
Footage of 12 families taken over three weeks showed the average parent takes their eyes off the road for 18% of the time, mostly turning to look at a child or watching them in the rear view mirror.
The Last Text
Click Here: http://www.schooltube.com/video/4386d84344d2a7345c5e/
AT&T has produced and made available the documentary, “The Last Text” that reveals the extensive impact texting while driving can have on lives, communities, families, and friends. To help youth and youth leaders implement this new tool into their distracted driving prevention program of work, NOYS developed a toolkit to support this documentary. Both are free to download and use.
Statistics & Effects of Distractions on Driving
It has been estimated that distraction played a role in 32% of all road crash deaths and serious injuries in Western Australia between 2005 and 2007.
Approximately one third of all distractions appear to be outside-the-vehicle distractions.
Distraction appears to be largely associated with rear-end crashes, same travel-way or same direction crashes, single vehicle crashes, and crashes occurring at night.