Rural and Remote Road Safety Research Project: Five Year Crash and Area Profile of North Queensland (Monograph 3)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Rural and Remote Road Safety Study Final Report Final Report i Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q) Document Retrieval Information Document no. CARRS-Q Monograph Series - Monograph 4 Date July, 2008 Pages 246 ISBN 978-0-9751596-7-5 Title Rural and Remote Road Safety Project: Final Report Published by Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety - Queensland, (CARRS-Q) Queensland University of Technology Beams Road Carseldine Q 4034 Australia Contributing Authors Chief Investigators Mary Sheehan Victor Siskind Richard Turner Craig Veitch Other Contributors Teresa O‟Connor Dale Steinhardt Ross Blackman Colin Edmonston Gayle Sticher Acknowledgements Frith Hatfield Hilary Waugh Patrick McShane Brian Richardson Michael Hannigan Jon Douglas Jill Newland Andrew Johnson Special Thanks Lesley Anderson Notes: 1. CARRS-Q research and activity reports are disseminated in the interests of information exchange. 2. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety - Queensland. This document should be cited as: Sheehan, M., Siskind, V., Turner, R., Veitch, C., O‟Connor, T., Steinhardt, D., Blackman, R., Edmonston, C., Sticher, G. (2008). Rural and Remote Road Safety Project - Final Report. (CARRS-Q Monograph 4). Brisbane, Australia: QUT, CARRS-Q. Reproduction of this page is authorised. Final Report i Table of Contents List of Tables ............................................................................................................ viii List of Figures ............................................................................................................ xix List of Appendices ..................................................................................................... xxi Executive Summary ................................................................................................. xxii Introduction .............................................................................................. xxii Method ..................................................................................................... xxii Major Recommendations ........................................................................ xxiv Male drivers and riders ............................................................ xxiv Motorcyclists ........................................................................... xxiv Road safety for Indigenous people .......................................... xxiv Road environment .................................................................... xxiv Trauma costs ............................................................................. xxv Emergency services .................................................................. xxv Enforcement .............................................................................. xxv Drink driving ............................................................................. xxv Data requirements ..................................................................... xxv Media and community education programmes ........................ xxvi Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ xxvii Glossary ................................................................................................................... xxix Abbreviations ....................................................................................................... xxxiii 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Project background ...................................................................................... 1 Classification of rural and remote areas ....................................... 1 The research program .................................................................................. 2 The North Queensland region ....................................................... 3 Road traffic crashes in North Queensland .................................... 5 Group risk factors ......................................................................... 6 Behavioural risk factors ................................................................ 8 Potential countermeasures ............................................................ 9 Plan of the report ........................................................................... 9 References .................................................................................................. 10 2. Study Design and Methods .................................................................................... 11 Study design ............................................................................................... 11 Selection of cases ....................................................................................... 12 Identification of cases ................................................................. 12 Questionnaires ............................................................................................ 12 Confidentiality ........................................................................................... 13 Fatalities ..................................................................................................... 14 Rural and Remote Road Safety Study ii Queensland Transport Road Crash database .............................................. 14 Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) data ............................................. 14 Queensland Police Service (QPS) data ...................................................... 14 Selection of a comparison group (controls) for the case-control study ..... 15 Comparison group data collection .............................................. 15 Timing ......................................................................................... 16 Location ...................................................................................... 16 Electronic Database ................................................................................... 16 In-depth study of injury and retrieval ........................................................ 16 Patients admitted to hospital ....................................................... 16 Fatalities ...................................................................................... 17 Cost estimations ......................................................................................... 17 Transport costs ............................................................................ 17 In-hospital costs .......................................................................... 18 Limitations ................................................................................................. 18 Case recruitment ......................................................................... 18 Comparison group recruitment ................................................... 20 References .................................................................................................. 21 3. Crash and Casualty Overview .............................................................................. 22 Scope of the crash study ............................................................................ 22 Overview .................................................................................................... 23 Casualty data .............................................................................................. 23 Demographic characteristics ....................................................... 23 Road user types ........................................................................... 27 Crash data ................................................................................................... 28 Crash locations ............................................................................ 28 Crash type ................................................................................... 33 Time of crash .............................................................................. 33 Environmental crash risk factors ................................................ 36 Police-reported crash unit level data .......................................................... 40 Discussion .................................................................................................. 44 Demographic characteristics ....................................................... 44 Indigenous status ......................................................................... 45 Road user types ........................................................................... 46 Relative road length risks ........................................................... 46 Off-road crashes .......................................................................... 46 In-town crashes ........................................................................... 47 Crash type ................................................................................... 47 Temporal factors ......................................................................... 47 Protective equipment use ............................................................ 48 Road environment factors ........................................................... 48 Unlicensed road users ................................................................. 48 Alcohol .......................................................................................