Building community support for changes to Western Australia's graduated driver training and licensing system.

In Western Australia, as in many other jurisdictions with high levels of motorisation, novice drivers aged 17 to 25 years are greatly over-represented in serious and fatal crashes. While they represent only 14 per cent of the state's licensed drivers, they are involved in 30 per cent of serious crashes. The Road Safety Council and the Government of WA have acted to reduce this unacceptable level of road trauma by further improving the current Graduated Driver Training and Licensing (GDT&L) system. Worldwide research and experience was utilised to develop recommendations to change the way novice drivers are trained and licensed in WA. The Road Safety Council acknowledged that while a strong evidence base supported the recommendations, without community support they would not be implemented effectively. As a result the Council committed to consult with the community to determine the level of support for these recommendations. This paper describes the detailed community consultation undertaken by the Council, the results of this process and the learnings gleaned from it. It also outlines the recommendations along with the progress to date on this important initiative. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E214930.