The Big Impact
Summer 2015
From the Acting Director
2016 is almost upon us and as I continue
in the role of Acting Director of MUARC,
there is considerable activity ahead
for the Centre in research, graduate
education and professional training.
During the year a number of major
reports were published, including
‘Options to Extend Coverage of Alcohol
Interlock Programs’. Led by Associate
Professor Michael Fitzharris, this report
for Austroads examines the evidence
base and develops options to extend the
coverage of alcohol interlock programs
to: a wider segment of drink-driving
offenders; other high-risk groups;
corporate fleets; and if appropriate, the
broader driving population on a voluntary
basis. Read more at:
Options to Extend Coverage of Alcohol
Interlock Programs Report
Associate Professor Stuart Newstead,
Professor Max Cameron and Ms Linda
Watson published ‘Vehicle Safety Ratings
estimated from police reported crash
data: 2015 update. Australian and New
Zealand crashes during 1987-2013’.
This study describes the calculation of
updated ratings that measure the relative
safety of vehicles in preventing severe
injury to people involved in crashes.
Three different aspects of secondary
safety are examined: crashworthiness
which focuses on drivers of the rated
vehicle, aggressivity which focuses on
drivers of other vehicles and unprotected
road users such as pedestrians, cyclists
and motorcyclists colliding with the
rated vehicle and total secondary safety
which examines the combined
crashworthiness and aggressivity
performance of the rated vehicle. A
supplementary report examined trends
in crashworthiness of the New Zealand
vehicle fleet by year of manufacture:
1964 to 2013. Read more at:
Vehicle Safety Ratings estimated from
police reported crash data report
Professor Brian Fildes, Associate
Professor Stuart Newstead, Associate
Professor Michael Fitzharris and Ms
Laurie Budd published their paper
‘Evaluation of the effectiveness of AntiLock Braking Systems on motorcycle
safety in Australia’. This study sets out to
assess the benefits of ABS technology
fitted to motorcycles, classification,
LC>125cc (no scooters with engine
cylinder capacity exceeding 50ml
and/or a maximum speed exceeding
50km/h), using Australian crash
data, to compare these findings with
published international research, and to
Associate Professor Judith
Charlton (Acting Director, MUARC)
estimate the likely benefits in reduced
crashes and injuries in the years ahead.
Importantly, the findings showed that the
presence of ABS on these motorcycles
resulted in a 33% reduction in all injuries
in relevant crash types and a 39%
reduction in severe injuries in these
crashes. Read more at:
Evaluation of the effectiveness of AntiLock Braking Systems on motorcycle
safety in Australia report
MUARC’s professional training
program delivered a highly successful
Road Safety Management Leadership
Course, with a total of 26 in attendance,
representing police and road agencies
u
www.monash.edu/miri/muarc
from four countries; India, South Africa,
New Zealand and Australia. In addition,
MUARC delivered four road safety
leadership programs for VicRoads in
partnership with colleagues from CASR
and the University of Melbourne. More on
the Road Safety Management Leadership
program for 2016 will be posted soon on
the MUARC website.
Our Graduate Education program
continues to expand with students
across the MPhil and PhD programs. In
2016, MUARC will host two students
to undertake full-time PhD research at
Monash University as part of a Graduate
Research Interdisciplinary Program (GRIP).
This GRIP brings together six faculties
and focuses on the topic of Sustainable
and Effective Public Transport (SEPT).
The SEPT-GRIP is jointly funded by
Monash University and industry groups,
including Public Transport Victoria,
Metro Trains Melbourne, Yarra Trams,
VicRoads, Transdev Melbourne and the
Bus Association of Victoria. The program
includes an advanced, collaborative
professional development program based
in the field with industry.
www.monash.edu/graduate-research/
partnerships/grips/sept
Building international links
Dr Sharon Newnam spent part of the year
on a study program in the US. Sharon
was based in the US at the University of
Michigan Transportation Institute (UMTRI)
from March to August. The purpose of
the trip was to develop her program
of research in workplace road safety,
with a focus on building international
collaborations. Key activities included
writing grant applications, industry
presentations (Michigan Truck Safety
Centre, Fedex, National Safety Council)
and conference presentations (National
Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health, Michigan Safety Conference).
Sharon and colleagues successfully
secured a grant from the Advancing
Transportation and Leadership Safety
(ATLAS) and a MIRI seeding grant to
support new projects focusing on (i)
automated vehicles in the workplace and
(ii) safety intervention for older truck drivers.
Sharon also presented her program of
research at the Institute of Work and
Health in Toronto, Canada and the Ministry
of Transportation.
In this issue we present Professor Tim
Horberry’s work on human-centred safe
design and the Ozcandrive Older Driver
Cohort Study, featuring news from its fiveyear milestone event.
The University’s search to fill the
MUARC Director role has to date not been
realised. A new search will commence in
early 2016.
Eric Howard, 2016 Road Safety Management
Leadership Program Facilitator presenting at
this year’s program.
Professor Tim Horberry, Associate Director Human Factors, and Nebojsa Tomasevic, Research Technician, demonstrating the MUARC Simulation Facilities.
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www.monash.edu/miri/muarc
Human-centred safe design
By Professor Tim Horberry
‘SAFE design’ is fast becoming an
influential injury prevention approach due
to a growing recognition of the contribution
of design to many workplace incidents. It is
also an area of national policy importance
(an action area of the Australian Work
Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2022).
Safe design aims to eliminate workplace
hazards by systematically involving endusers in the design or redesign process.
Professor Tim Horberry’s research
develops, applies and disseminates a taskbased, human-centred safe design (HCSD)
approach. The work is multidisciplinary
through the combination of human
factors, design and risk management
techniques. Tim’s goal is to create and
apply user-centred design approaches to
improve transport and workplace safety by
systematically involving end-users in the
design process. Through his previous work
at UQ (Australia), Cambridge University &
TRL (UK) he has undertaken safe design
work with:
Safe design aims to
eliminate workplace hazards
by systematically involving
end-users in the design or
redesign process.
An international focus on the
safety of mining equipment
• Mining equipment (eg safe access and
egress for operators and maintainers)
• Road vehicle design (eg car
dashboards)
• Road design - using psychological road
audits.
• Safer workplace design – eg medical
procedures linked to Central Venous
Catheterisation.
• Developing safe design methods and
tools: eg the SiDE and OMAT taskbased approaches.
In MUARC’s Human Factors team, Tim has
just commenced an international research
project funded by the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
USA. Collaborating with ergonomists from
NIOSH and the University of Queensland,
the ongoing work will produce a roadmap
for human-centred design of mining
equipment. The mining industry has
traditionally been very technology-centred
rather than human-centred, so the work
will help to produce a major paradigm shift
in this domain. It includes:
• Disseminating HCSD material via a
NIOSH published ‘Information Circular’.
This will include how mining equipment
needs to be designed with an explicit
focus on the end users, their work
tasks, and the likely use context.
• Creating detailed HCSD case studies:
one focusing on new technology and
one on traditional mining equipment.
• Developing HCSD education/training
materials, and then iterating these with
American-based mining groups.
• Working with the NIOSH project leader
to develop a roadmap for integrating an
HCSD approach into ongoing NIOSH
projects and more broadly across the
global minerals industry.
The ultimate aim here is to encourage the
application of HCSD-style processes in the
minerals industry. Our vision for the future
is usable, fit for purpose equipment and
technologies that are well-integrated with
the demands of the workplace.
www.monash.edu/miri/muarc
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Ozcandrive Older Drivers Study:
5-Year Milestone Event
Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) in association with its
research partners is conducting a long-term international study of older drivers.
THE study is of national and international
importance for informing the strategic
management of the safe mobility of the
baby boomer cohort as they enter older
age. Ozcandrive and its international
partner project, Candrive, is a world first
prospective, five-year longitudinal study,
combining health and real-world driving
measures to track older drivers as they age.
The broad aims of the project are to reduce
vehicle-related injuries and death and
improve the quality of life of older drivers by
extending their safe mobility. Results from
this study will guide the development of a
simple, objective screening tool to assist
clinicians to identify at-risk older drivers who
may be unsafe.
Dr Jude Charlton, Chief Investigator
at MUARC says “the study will ultimately
lead to safer roads for all through
the development of evidence-based
assessment for safe driving, innovative
training and other management strategies
for older drivers”.
Funded by a $1.8m Australian
Research Council Linkage Grant awarded
Study participants attending the 2015
Ozcandrive 5-Year Milestone Event.
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www.monash.edu/miri/muarc
to the Monash University, Ozcandrive is
a partnership with La Trobe University,
VicRoads, Victorian Government
Department of Justice and Victoria Police,
the Transport Accident Commission, New
Zealand Transport Agency Community
Road Safety Fund, Ottawa Hospital
Research Institute and Eastern Health.
July 2015 marked the end of the fifth
year of data collection for the Ozcandrive
study. To honour this important occasion,
the Monash University Accident Research
Centre hosted a 5-year Milestone
Celebration Event at the Mulgrave Country
Club. Study participants, project partners
and guests were invited to attend the event
which included a keynote presentation by
the Project lead investigators describing
early findings from the study. The
Ozcandrive study and its Canadian partner,
Candrive, is a world first in its design,
using a prospective, longitudinal approach,
evaluating clinical and real-world driving
measures to track drivers as they age. The
study involves 928 drivers aged 70 years
and over in Canada and 302 drivers aged
75 years and older in Australia and New
Zealand. The project has followed this
cohort over five years, assessing changes
in their functional abilities, driving practices
(e.g. exposure and patterns), as well as
crashes and citations. Participants’ natural
driving patterns and driving practices (e.g.,
trip distance, duration, type of road, speed)
are recorded through an in-car recording
device installed in the participant’s own
vehicle and measures of participants’
functional ability, medical conditions and
self-reported driving-related abilities and
practices are documented annually. In
Professor Pauline Nestor, Monash University
Senior Vice-Provost and Vice-Provost
(Research) welcomes Ozcandrive participants
at the 5-Year Milestone Celebration event,
July 2015.
addition, participants’ driving performance
is evaluated annually through an on-road
driving task.
The study is generating a rich volume
of data which is contributing new insights
about older drivers to inform policy for the
safe mobility of older people. Importantly,
the study will answer questions about: how
older drivers’ driving changes over time;
how patterns of self-regulation change; and
how declining health and functional ability
can impact on driving.
Federal Member for Chisholm, Ms
Anna Burke launched the next phase
of the project: Ozcandrive II, which will
extend the study into a sixth year and
beyond. This continuation has been made
possible through funding from the Transport
Accident Commission, and the generous
ongoing support of Eastern Health and all
the Ozcandrive partners.
Below are MUARC publications this quarter:
Beanland VC, Lenne MG, Rossger
L. 2015, Psychological
factors in seeing motorcycles.
Increasing Road User Design
and Assessment of Interventions
to Enhance Rider Safety. 1st
Edition, 21-49
Beanland VC, Lenne MG,
Underwood G. 2015, Can
drivers’ expectations and
behaviour around motorcycles
be influenced by exposure?
Increasing Road User Design
and Assessment of Interventions
to Enhance Rider Safety. 1st
Edition, 165-182
Cornelissen M, Salmon PM,
Stanton N, McClure RJ. 2015,
Assessing the ‘system’ in safe
systems-based road designs:
using cognitive work analysis
to evaluate intersection
designs. Accident Analysis and
Prevention. 74; 324-338
D’Elia AD, Newstead SV. 2015,
Comparison of Victorian road
trauma trends using traditional
and alternative measures of
serious injury derived from
linked data. Journal of the
Australasian College of Road
Safety, 28:2; 19-25
D’Elia AD, Newstead SV. 2015,
Pedestrian injury outcome as a
function of vehicle market group
in Victoria, Australia. Traffic
Injury Prevention, 16:7; 709-714
Fildes BN, Keall M, Bos NM, Lie
A, Page Y, Pastor C, Pennisi L,
Matteo R, Thomas PD, Tingvall
CG. 2015, Effectiveness of low
speed autonomous emergency
braking in real-world rear-end
crashes. Accident Analysis and
Prevention. 81; 24-29
Fitzharris MP, Liu S, Peiris AS.
2015, Prevention of spinal
cord injury due to road traffic
crashes. ISCoS Textbook on
Comprehensive Management of
Spinal Cord Injuries. 1st Edition,
1068-1076
Hunter K, Keay, L Simpson J,
Brown J, Bilston L, Fegan M,
Cosgrove L, Stevenson M,
Ivers R. 2015, Program fidelity
measures associated with
an effective Child Restraint
Program: Buckle-Up Safely.
American Journal of Public
Health, 105:3; 584-590
Koppel SN, Berecki-Gisolf J. 2015,
Car licensing trends of the
babyboomer cohort (b.19461965) compared to earlier
birth cohorts: effects on the
driving population I the State of
Victoria, Australia. Traffic Injury
Prevention. 16:7; 657-663
Lenne MG, Mitsopoulos-Rubens
P. 2015, Should I stay or should
I go? Examining the effect of
various conspicuity treatments
on drivers’ turning performance.
Increasing Road User Design
and Assessment of Interventions
to Enhance Rider Safety. 1st
Edition, 89-108
Mattos GA, McIntosh AS,
Grzebieta R, Yoganandan N,
Pintar FA. 2015, Sensitivity of
head and cervical spine injury
measures to impact factors
relevant to rollover crashes.
Traffic Injury Prevention. 16
(Supp 1); 140-147
Read G, Salmon PM, Lenne MG,
Jenkins DP. 2015, Designing a
ticket to ride with the Cognitive
Work Analysis Design Toolkit.
Ergonomics, 58:8; 1226-1286
Read G, Salmon PM, Lenne MG,
Stanton NA. 2015, Designing
sociotechnical systems with
cognitive work analysis: putting
theory back into practice.
Ergonomics, 58:5; 822-851
Regan MA, Lintern GT, Hutchinson
RG, Turetschek C. 2015, Use
fo cognitive work analysis
for exploration of safety
management in the operation
of motorcycles and scooters.
Accident Analysis and
Prevention. 74; 279-289
Sullman MJ, Stephens A, Yong
M. 2015, Anger, aggression
and road rage behaviour
in Malaysian drivers.
Transportation Research Part F:
Psychology and Behaviour. 29;
70-82
Walker GH, Stephens A. 2015,
Multiple driver distractions: a
systemic transport problem.
Accident Analysis and
Prevention. 74; 360-367
Young KL, Salmon PM. 2015,
Sharing the responsibility for
driver distraction across road
transport systems: a systems
approach to the management
of distracted driving. Accident
Analysis and Prevention. 74;
350-359
Young KL, Lenne MG, Beanland
VC, Salmon PM. Stanton NA.
2015, Where do novice and
experienced drivers direct their
attention on approach to urban
rail level crossings? Accident
Analysis and Prevention. 7; 1-11
Further information
Monash University Accident
Research Centre (MUARC)
21 Alliance Lane, Clayton Campus
Monash University, VIC 3800
Telephone: +61 3 9905 4371
Email: miri-enquiry@monash.edu
www.monash.edu/miri/muarc
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