One important part of driver education is to convince the candidates to use the safety equipment in the car such as safety belts and airbags in a correct manner. If there is an accident, the injuries will be less severe if the safety equipment are not only used but also used in a correct way. There are, however, findings showing that there are gaps in the current driver education when it comes to convincing candidates to use safety equipment. At some of the skid tracks in Sweden, an additional educational concept has been developed that is focusing on convincing drivers to use the safety equipment in the car. The concept is named "Safety halls" where the main aim is to provide knowledge about the different safety equipment of the car and how it should be used in order to create highest possible safety. Candidates doing the mandatory skid training at these skid tracks will also attend this new training. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible effects of safety halls on the candidates' knowledge, attitudes and self reported behaviour regarding the areas safety belts, tyres, sitting posture, load, airbag, and speed. The study was carried out at the eight skid tracks in Sweden that had a safety hall at the time of the evaluation. At all skid tracks, candidates were randomly distributed into an experiment group (skid training and safety hall) and a control group (only skid training). At the arrival to the skid track all candidates filled out a questionnaire (before measurement). The same candidates also filled out the same questionnaire directly after finishing the education programme (after measurement 1). Four and a half months later a similar questionnaire was sent by post to the same candidates (after measurement 2). A total of 1,326 candidates (658 in the experiment group and 668 in the control group) filled out all three questionnaires and thus formed the sample for the overall analyses. In the questionnaires, questions were asked about background factors such as age, gender, highest education in the family etc. There were also knowledge questions, attitude questions and questions about self reported behaviour. In general, the findings show that the extra education in safety halls increases the knowledge, improves the attitudes about traffic safety and strengthen the intentions to behave safe. The improvements are largest when measured directly after the education, but effects still remain after 4.5 months. Some of the areas covered shows better results (in the experiment group compared to the control group) than others. Above all, the two areas safety belts and load showed the best results on knowledge, attitudes and intentions, both in a short and long term. The evaluation has also shown that there is a need for improvement of the current education in the safety halls if the expected effects should be improved. (A) This document is also available electronically via Internet at URL: http://www.vti.se/EPiBrowser/Publikationer%20-%20English/R502.pdf
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