Age, driving experience and gender, are well recognised as predictive factors in speed-related crashes. The present study examined the interrelationships of these factors and speeding by interrogating the RTA's licence, offence and crash data, to compare provisional and unrestricted licence holders on speeding offences. The data showed that speeding offence rates are much higher amongst provisional drivers than unrestricted drivers, especially at extreme levels of speeding. Males tend to speed more than females, again especially at excessive speed. However, male to female ratio of unrestricted speeding offenders is similar to or slightly higher than that of provisional speeding offenders across all speeding ranges. Hence, being a novice driver also seems to add independently to the tendency to speed at high ranges regardless of gender. Overrepresentation of high range speeding offence rates amongst provisional drivers also appears to be a major contributor to their overrepresentation in serious crashes. Examination of crashes in NSW over the last five years reveals that speeding is more likely to be a factor in the fatal crashes of provisional drivers than unrestricted drivers. Results are discussed in terms of psychological factors in speeding and road safety countermeasures. The automatic licence suspension for P1 drivers caught speeding being introduced in NSW is likely to produce road safety benefits. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E216178.
Abstract