Effects of social and information campaigns are usually difficult to evaluate. In case of road safety, data on road crashes supplements the questionnaire surveys. Analysis of data on road accidents, as well as qualitative and quantitative surveys examining the change of attitudes declared, should be employed each time for evaluating campaigns dedicated to the road safety issue selected. Preliminary survey, conducted before the campaign is launched, serves to determine the initial state as the grounds for further observations and to define sensitiveness to certain road safety aspects, while the collected data on road accidents illustrate the size of the problem. While the campaign is in progress, an on-going analysis of the dynamics of road accidents changes is carried out. After the campaign is over, public opinion polls may be repeated. Campaign efficiency measures (decrease in the number of accidents, impact on public behaviour) are defined for individual themes and addressees. The public should be kept informed about the results. This way people may learn how their own behaviour becomes a part of road safety improvement process, they feel appreciated and aware of their role, while road safety ceases to be an issue out of touch with reality and becomes a common problem. The successes of "Ostatni wyskok" ("Last bash") campaign informing about the necessity to use seat belts by all the passengers and on every route, have been confirmed by declarative and observational surveys, as well as by Police Headquarters statistics. Effectiveness of this campaign was honoured with a Silver and Bronze Effie 2006 award in a prestigious international competition evaluating effectiveness of advertising campaigns. Having in mind that measures influencing changes in attitudes and behaviours are a longlasting process, we must remember that monitoring of campaign impact on its addressees should be carried out also when the campaign is over. Such monitoring should consist in constant analysis of accident data and periodic questionnaire surveys. The campaigns, moreover, should be regularly repeated. All commercial advertisement is being repeated and change of behaviour requires same measures. We will then be able to assess how lasting the change of attitude resulting from campaigns was and also to see whether there is a need to repeat or change messages. Current research projects carried out in EU are first step into pan-European campaigns which could above cultural differences influence the behaviour and improve road safety on whole continent. Such campaigns coupled with cross-border enforcement would guarantee necessary shift in the situation and decrease of risk associated with travel at the moment. (A). For the covering abstract of the conference see E216632.
Abstract