In December 1991, the Queensland Police Southern Region began trials on rural roads of a long-term/low intensity enforcement program which previous evaluations had shown could generate significant, cost-effective traffic crash reductions. In essense, the approach involves the random scheduling of stationary police vehicles, in traffic-surveillance mode, to randomly selected sections of nominated roads. The rationale is that, over a several month period, motorists learn that in any journey police may well be present on the road ahead, but because of the lack of any pattern in police deployments, are unable to predict where or when. This process leads to motorists driving more prudently during all journeys on such routes. The method typically requires two to four hours per week per police division and as such requires relatively few man-hours to service. For the period 1 January - 31 October 1992, this report reviews the crash experience of enforced routes at enforced times in comparison with that of remaining rural routes, both for the Police Southern Region and for the rest of rural Queensland. A previous study covered the period 1 January - 31 May 1992. After correction for the trend of the comparison groups, the program is estimated to have displayed a marked 40 per cent fatal crash reduction and a 25 per cent injury crash reduction. The measures of fatal crash reduction are statistically reliable at the .1 level. Hospitalised crash reductions are not statistically significant. On current performance, Random Road Watch is estimated to prevent 11 fatal crashes per year in the Police Southern Region, and 60 crashes involving injury. The fatal result represents a 17 per cent reduction of the fatal toll of the entire region. The benefit/cost ratio of the program is estimated at 14:1. This is similar to the figure of 17:1 determined in the previous evaluation.
Abstract