| Abstract | Background Approximately one third of Australians live in regional and remote areas but these areas account for two thirds of road fatalities. The purpose of this project was to provide practitioners with guidance on evidence-based road safety interventions that can prevent fatal and serious injury crashes in regional and remote areas.
Method An international literature review was conducted to identify effective evidence-based road safety countermeasures for regional and remote areas. Findings from this review and a series of workshops with stakeholders guided the development of a framework for prioritising these interventions and advice for implementation. An evaluation framework was also developed for evaluating implemented countermeasure effectiveness.
Results Using a Safe Systems framework, the literature review identified countermeasures with demonstrated road safety benefits for issues in regional and remote areas. A prioritisation framework was developed enabling practitioners to systematically examine potential interventions through five steps including: understanding the specific problem, potential intervention selection, cost estimation, benefit calculation and prioritisation, and implementation. An evaluation framework was designed to guide practitioners through a four-stage evaluation process with three levels of rigour. Importantly, factsheets designed for practitioners were created based on key road safety interventions/issues. Each factsheet contained a summary of the intervention, target behaviour and/or road user, application tips, implementation considerations, and effectiveness of the intervention.
Outcomes The evidence-based findings from this collaborative project resulted in the development of practical guidance for practitioners to effectively select, prioritise, implement and evaluate interventions to prevent road fatalities and serious injuries in regional and remote areas.
Acknowledgements This project was funded by Austroads. The project team would like to thank Mark Ellis (Project Manager), Terri-Anne Pettet, Sarah Mewett, Christopher Davis, Paul Gottke, Matt Hollamby, and Daniel Bacon for their contributions as the Project Working Group. We also thank the 29 workshop stakeholders from all over Australia who provided their time, insights, and recommendations to this project. |
