Cur
n‐Monash Accident Research Centre Cur n‐Monash Accident Research Centre M a r c h 2 0 1 4 V o l u m e 2 . I s s u e 1 Review of young driver risk taking and its associa on with other risk taking behaviours 

best evidence a es ng to the rela onship between A recent review of the youth and young adult risk taking on the road and elsewhere and for pro‐
health‐related risk taking research by staff at gram effec veness was noted for youth elsewhere C‐MARC (Peter Palamara, Chelvi Kopinanthan, Jim (e.g., USA; Canada), with limited evidence for youth Langford, Jessica Gorman, Michelle Broughton) and na onally and even less for local Western Australian the University of Michigan Transporta on Research youth. The la er finding highlights the importance Ins tute (Lisa Molnar, David Eby) has highlighted of undertaking research to provide a more contem‐
the rela onship between risk taking on the road by porary, local understanding of how risk taking on young and novice drivers and the prac ce of other the road and elsewhere develops and can be best risky health‐related behaviours. Whilst it is under‐
managed within the Western Australian context. stood that risk taking is only one contribu ng factor to the high rate of crashing and injury among this A number of recommenda ons were discussed as young driver group, there is reasonably good evi‐
poten al interven ons to reduce risk taking on the dence to conclude that youth and young adults road as well as others for addi onal research into who engage in risky behaviours such as drinking, the rela onship between risk taking on the road and smoking, and illicit drugs are likely to have a higher elsewhere for Western Australian youth. The most risk of becoming involved in motor vehicle crashes important recommenda ons related to a strength‐
as drivers. The review also noted that risk taking ening of Western Australia’s driver training and per se is a normal part of adolescent development licensing program in line with best prac ce in Grad‐
but its impact for drivers could nevertheless be uated Licensing, and, the need to make be er use of managed by programs such as Graduated Driver Western Australia’s unique data linkage capabili es Licensing. to develop an understanding of the rela onship between health‐related risk taking behaviours and The authors reviewed local, na onal and interna‐
on‐road driving outcomes. onal evidence around on‐road risk taking and other risk taking behaviours such as alcohol, smok‐
The full report Review of young driver risk taking ing and illicit drugs; unsafe sex, and self‐harm and and its associa on with other risk taking behavsuicide. Ini a ves to counter risk taking on the road iours can be downloaded from; and elsewhere were also reviewed for their effec‐
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/
veness, with the view to determining which ele‐
handle/2027.42/94210/102889.pdf?sequence=1
ments and ini a ves might be adapted and imple‐
mented locally in Western Australia to combat young driver risk taking and crash involvement. The Young drivers and risk taking behaviours on and off the road Emergence of graduated driver licensing programs as the most effec ve contemporary strategy for reducing young driver crashes Inside this issue: Modelling the Road Trau‐
ma Effects of Poten al Vehicle Safety Improve‐
ments in the Western Australian Light Passenger Vehicle Fleet The effect of alcohol outlets and sales on alcohol‐related injuries presen ng at Emergency Departments in Perth, 2 3 From the Director from 2002 to 2010 C‐MARC Seminar Series 3 C‐MARC Team News 4 New Research Projects 4 New Publica ons 4 Welcome to the third edition of the Curtin‐Monash Accident Research Centre News. We hope you all had a happy and safe holiday and enjoy reading about all the new grants, new staff members and research that is going on at C‐MARC. Recently C‐MARC has moved from the School of Public Health to now come directly un‐
der the Faculty of Health Sciences. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the School of Public Health for all the help we received over the first five years of C‐MARC’s operation. We have also relocated our offices from the university campus to 7 Parker Place, Technology Park, Bentley. We are pleased to announce that in collaboration with research partners, C‐MARC has recently been successful in receiving funding for an ARC Research Council Discovery Grant. An overview of this pro‐
ject can be found later in this newsletter. Lynn Meuleners
Modelling the Road Trauma Effects of Poten al Vehicle Safety Improvements in the Western Australian Light Passenger Vehicle Fleet P a g e 2 Associate Professor Stuart Newstead, Laurie Budd and Jim Scully authored a recent C‐MARC report profiling 2006‐2009 crash data and 2006‐2012 registra ons for West Australian passenger vehi‐
cles by corporate fleet type: metropolitan corpo‐
rate, rural corporate, government and private. It also projects crashes and occupant injuries by road user, for the cohort of 2012 registered new corpo‐
rate vehicles over their average 22 year life span. This includes both the period of ini al corporate ownership as well as subsequent transfer to pri‐
vate ownership. This served as a baseline for eval‐
ua ng the road trauma benefits of different safety focused fleet vehicle purchasing scenarios.  Corporate and government fleet vehicles experienced a substan ally higher crash risk than private vehicles in the study period. The WA corporate and government fleet was found to have a growing over representa on of vehicle market groups with high aggressivity, a trait par cularly unique to W.A. Corporate and government fleet vehicles experienced a substan‐
ally higher crash risk per registered vehicle than private vehicles in WA over the 2006‐2009 period, despite most corporate and government fleet drivers being over 25 years of age and most corpo‐
rate vehicles being newer and thus more likely to be fi ed with newer safety technology. The ob‐
 Best outcome for reduc ons in societal cost was found to be mandated fi ng of forward collision warning with autonomous emergency braking systems to all fleet vehicles.  Vehicle subs tu on to a less aggressive vehicle best scenario where fleet buyer meets break even costs. The table below shows the rela ve community cost savings es mated for various fleet ,purchasing strategies applied to the 2012 fleet including pur‐
chasing various safety technologies. The most beneficial emerging crash avoidance technology was fitment of forward collision warning and au‐
tonomous emergency braking systems that oper‐
ate at all speeds to all fleet vehicles. Of the more general purchasing strategies, purchasing vehicles with the best available crashworthiness (within the desired market group) showed the second highest poten al benefit. WA road trauma could also be significantly reduced through fleets purchasing less aggressive vehicles, par cularly those vehicles used predominantly in metropolitan Perth. A copy of the full report Modelling the Road Trauma Effects of Poten al Vehicle Safety Improvements in the Western Australian Light Passenger Vehicle Fleet can be downloaded from h p://
www.ors.wa.gov.au/Documents/Vehicles/ors‐
Table showing es mated savings in community social costs associated with each alterna ve fleet purchasing scenario over the useful lives of the 2012‐purchased fleet vehicles Corporate Metro Total
Scenario Savings Serious Injury
Savings Corporate Rural Total
Savings Serious Injury
Savings Government Total
Savings Serious Injury
Savings Buy most crashworthy vehicle $M 47.6 N 144 $M 48.8 $M 3.9 N 13 $M 4.1 $M 3.1 N 10 $M 3.1 Buy less aggressive model, use fleet average 4.7 17 5.3 0.8 3 0.8 0.5 2 0.5 Buy least aggressive model in each group 14.2 42 13.5 1.5 5 1.5 1.2 4 1.1 Fit ac ve forward collision detec on and interven on at 80km/h or > 15.6 32 11.0 1.5 3 1.1 1.0 2 0.7 Fit ac ve forward collision detec on and interven on at all speeds 100.6 197 66.4 10.0 21 6.7 6.0 13 4.0 Fit fa gue warning 2.5 6 2.1 0.2 1 0.2 0.2 0 0.1 Fit lane departure warning Fit lane change/blind spot warning Fit Side Curtain airbags standard 5.8 12 4.1 0.5 1 0.4 0.4 1 0.3 8.0 13 4.2 0.8 1 0.4 0.5 1 0.3 2.5 8 2.6 0.3 1 0.3 0.1 0 0.1 0.8 2 0.6 0.1 0 0.1 0.03 0 0.02 Fit ESC (electronic stability control) as standard C u r
served higher crash risk per registered vehicle is most likely due to greater travel exposure by cor‐
porate and government fleet vehicles compared to private vehicles in WA. n ‐ M o n a s h A c c i d e n t R e s e a r c h C e n t r e V o l u m e 2 , I s s u e 1 P a g e 3 The effect of alcohol outlets and sales on alcohol‐related injuries presen ng at Emergency Departments in Perth, from 2002 to 2010 Alcohol‐related injuries, including violence and road crashes, represent a major problem in Australian society. Recent events, including the death of a teenager as the result of a king‐hit punch, have brought the problem of alcohol‐related injuries to the a en on of the public. Research has shown that alcohol availability (including the number of alcohol outlets per area, the volume of alcohol sales and the trading hours of outlets) is asso‐
ciated with problem drinking and alcohol‐related assault, road crashes, in mate partner violence, suicide and child maltreat‐
ment. However, no previous studies have inves gated the inde‐
pendent effects of these three aspects of the physical availability of alcohol. premise outlets (bo le shops) and on‐premise outlets (restaurants, nightclubs, hotels and taverns). The results showed that, while most injuries occur during day‐
me hours, most alcohol‐related cases present during the night, especially over weekends. Higher pure alcohol sales per off‐
premise outlet were associated with an increase in alcohol‐
related injuries, while higher counts of on‐premise outlets per postcode were associated with addi onal alcohol‐related inju‐
ries. Higher numbers of on‐premise outlets with extended trad‐
ing hours in a postcode were associated with a greater risk of alcohol‐related injury compared to addi onal on‐premise outlets with standard trading hours. The study was a collab‐
ora on between C‐MARC, the Na onal Drug Research Ins tute and the Drug and Alco‐
hol Office of Western Australia to inves gate the rela onship be‐
tween alcohol availabil‐
ity and alcohol‐related injury presenta ons over me. The results suggest that a reduc on in injuries associated with off‐premise outlets may be achieved by controlling price (such as The research was undertaken by PhD student Michelle Hobday, discounts on bulk purchases and minimum floor prices). The Professor Tanya Chikritzhs from the Na onal Drug Research counts of on‐premise outlets may be controlled through the iIns tute (NDRI), Professor Lynn Meuleners (C‐MARC) and Dr gran ng of fewer licences, par cularly preven ng clustering of Wenbin Liang (NDRI). Injury data was obtained from the Emer‐
these outlets, and addi onal surveillance of entertainment dis‐
gency Department Informa on System (EDIS). Eight years of tricts both within outlets (responsible beverage service and data on Perth alcohol‐related injuries, alcohol outlets and their bouncers) and in the surrounding areas (through increased sales and trading hours were collated at postcode level. For the police presence). purposes of the analysis, outlets were separated into off‐
C‐MARC Seminar Series 23 October 2013 Rela onships linking speed and road trauma and the use of Kloeden et al’s rela ve risk curves to es mate crashes a ributable to low and high level speeding C‐MARC hosted a seminar presented by Professor Max Cameron, of the Monash University Accident Research Centre, discussing the use of Kloeden et al’s rela ve risk rela onships, in conjunc on with vehicle speed measurements, to es mate casualty crashes associ‐
ated with each speed range. Results were presented for Perth 60 km/h limit roads and also for urban roads in Queensland. The first seminar for 2014 was presented by Michelle Hobday “ The effect of alcohol outlets and sales on alcohol-related injuries presen ng at Emergency Departments in Perth, from 2002 to 2010” on 19th February 2014 at Cur n University. The study was a collabora on between C‐MARC, the Na onal Drug Research Ins tute and the Drug and Alcohol Office of Western Aus‐
tralia to inves gate the rela onship between alcohol availability and alcohol‐related injury presenta ons over me. C‐MARC Team News C‐MARC recently welcomed two new members to the team. Dr. Min Zhang—Main Roads Fellow Mrs Trish Barrett ‐ Research Associate Dr. Min Zhang is a senior epidemiologist and has ten years research experience in public health. In 2008‐2013, she was appointed as a research associate pro‐
fessor and Director of Lu Cha Sino‐
Australian Research Collabora on at the School of Popula on Health, the Univer‐
sity of Western Australia. She has pub‐
lished 51 refereed ar cles including 39 peer‐reviewed journal ar cles with 62% first‐authored papers. Trish has a background in medical sci‐
ence, women’s health, health promo on and medical research. For the past 3 years she has been working on a cataract audi ng database being implemented in Western Australian public and private hospitals, and a project to develop a more efficient phacoemulsifica on nee‐
dle. Prior to that she was involved in research projects within the School of Public Health, Cur n University, for the Royal Flying Doctor Ser‐
vice and the Health Department of WA. New Research Projects Australian Research Council Discovery Grant Driving performance and self‐regula on among older drivers with bilateral cataract C‐MARC is delighted to announce that Professor Lynn Meuleners, Dr Lisa Keay, Dr Mark Young, Dr Jonathon Ng, Associate Professor Nigel Morlet and Professor Peter McCluskey received an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery grant en tled “Driving performance and self‐
regula on among older drivers with bilateral cataract: a prospec ve cohort study”. The study will examine driving performance and self‐
regula on before, between and a er first and second eye cataract surgery. It will use naturalis c in‐vehicle driver monitoring devices and a driving simulator to measure driving related outcomes. Publica ons Stevenson M, Elkington J, Sharwood LN, Meuleners L, Ivers RQ, Boufous S, Williamson A, Haworth N, Quinlan M, Grunstein R, Norton R, Wong KK. The role of sleepiness, sleep disorders and the work environment on heavy‐vehicle crashes. Am J Epidemiol. 2013 Dec 18 To KG, Meuleners L, Chen HY, Lee A, Phi TD, Nguyen ND. Assessing the psychometric proper es of the Na onal Eye Ins tute 25‐Item Visual Func on Ques onnaire among bilateral cataract pa ents for a Vietnamese popula on. Australasian Journal of Ageing. 2013 Dec 27 Meuleners LB, Fraser M. Gender differences in recurrent mental health contacts a er hospitalisa on due to interpersonal violence: West‐
ern Australia, 1997 to 2008. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2014. To KG, Meuleners L, Fraser M, Do DV, Duong DV, Huynh V, To QG, Phi TD, Tran HH, Nguyen ND. Prevalence and visual risk factors for a fall in bilateral cataract pa ents in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Ophthalmic Epidemiology, 2014. To KG, Meuleners L, Fraser M, Do DV, Duong DV, Huynh V, To QG, Phi TD, Tran HH, Nguyen ND. The impact of cataract surgery on depres‐
sive symptoms for bilateral cataract pa ents in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam. Interna onal Psychogeria cs, 2014, Feb 26. C‐MARC Cur n University Faculty of Health Sciences 7 Parker Place Technology Place Email: p.barre @cur n.edu.au Fax | +61 8 9266 2958 Web: www.c‐marc.cur n.edu.au C‐MARC is a West Australian based independent multi‐disciplinary road safety research centre established by the West Australian State Government’s Office of Road Safety in 2009. The Centre represents a significant partnership between the Office of Road Safety, Cur n University and Monash University’s Accident Research Centre (MUARC). C‐MARC’s mission is “to be a Centre of excellence in road and other injury research and the transla on of that research into policy and prac ce that will inform government, industry and the wider community.” © 2014 Cur n‐Monash Accident Research Centre, Cur n University of Technology