As is common in developed countries worldwide, in Australia, including Western Australia (WA), young novice drivers are substantially over-represented in road crash and injury statistics compared to more experienced drivers. While young age can contribute to this inflated risk, the major contributing factor is inexperience. Measures that seek to address this inexperience include driver education and training programs and graduated driver licensing initiatives, which operate in the context of other regulatory systems, such as Police enforcement and laws regulating the purchase and consumption of alcohol. The WA Office of Road Safety commissioned the Monash University Accident Research Centre to review these systems, to determine current WA policies and practices and to make recommendations for the WA context. Published and unpublished literature were reviewed and a series of consultations undertaken with key agencies and individuals. The present document reports on the findings of these activities. Programs specified as a focus were the Road Aware Pre-Drivers initiative and the Youth Driver Development Program, in addition to the new Graduated Driver Training and Licensing system. Evaluations of all three initiatives have been commissioned and are currently in progress. Notwithstanding the need to monitor the findings of these evaluations and make revisions accordingly, a range of recommendations are made in each of the three key areas, that is, driver training, licensing and other young driver regulatory systems. (Author/publisher)
Abstract