This report was presented to the national road safety symposuim, canbera in march 1972. It illustrates the fact that young people have a very high accident rate, particularly young males, and particularly when using motorcycles. Reasons for this high accident rate are postulated - the young male uses driving to show his manhood, drinks and drives, and is extremely mobile but inexperienced. Suggestions are made for reducing these accidents: (1) the mobility of adolescents could be reduced eg. By increasing the age for obtaining a licence, or increasing the cost or other restrictions on driving, (2) restrictions could be placed on the types of vehicle they may be allowed to drive, (3) educational programmes. It is however stressed that there is a great need for research to find which educational programmes are most effective.
Abstract