| Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety - Queensland | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1996 |
| Director | Professor Barry Watson |
| Academic staff | 35 |
| Admin. staff | 13 |
| Postgraduates | 11 |
| Doctoral students | 22 |
| Location | Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
| Campus | Kelvin Grove |
| Affiliations | Queensland University of Technology |
| Website | http://www.carrsq.qut.edu.au |
The Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q) is a research centre established in 1996.
It is based at the Kelvin Grove campus of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Queensland, Australia and is part of both the Faculty of Health and the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI).
The Centre was established as a joint venture of the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC)[1] and QUT, and also receives funding from competitive research grants for specific projects. CARRS-Q's stated vision is "to decrease the local, national and international burden of trauma-related harm"[2], which it does by conducting research, training road safety professionals, running drink-driver rehabilitation and fleet safety programs, and giving awards to other organisations or individuals for successful road safety initiatives.
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CARRS-Q's areas of research are divided into Occupational Road Safety, Regulation and Enforcement, Safety Systems and Technology, School and Community Injury Prevention, and Vulnerable Road Users[1]. The Centre is part of the School of Psychology and Counselling in QUT's Faculty of Health[3], and some of its researchers have psychology qualifications[4] and focus on the behavioural aspects of road safety[5].
Through Queensland University of Technology, CARRS-Q offers a Graduate Certificate[6] or Graduate Diploma[7] in Road Safety for people who are already working in, or want to enter the field[8], as well as short courses in crash site investigation and statistical evaluation[9]. It also has Masters and PhD students, some of whom are concurrently employed as Research Officers[10].
The Centre has two self-funding research interventions, the Fleet Safety program[11] and the Under the Limit (UTL) drink-driver rehabilitation program[12].
Organisations that want to improve occupational health and safety (and thus, reduce costs and risks) in their vehicle fleets can engage the Fleet Safety team to conduct a range of services including driver profiling and policy development[13]. Workshops, both for fleet managers (using case studies to explore legal obligations and data-collection processes) and professional drivers (focusing on awareness, attitude and behaviours) are conducted[14], and a series of Fleet Safety seminars have been held[15]. Fleet Safety is sometimes referred to as Work Related Road Safety.
Convicted drink drivers are referred to the Under the Limit program (in conjunction with a probation order) through the Magistrates' Court of Queensland[16]. Completion of the program has been shown to reduce repeat drink-driving offences, although it does not change participants' intentions to drink[17]. The UTL program is held at Technical and Further Education (TAFE) campuses and in 2009 received the Queensland Crime & Violence Prevention Award from the Government of Australia's Australian Institute of Criminology[18][19].
CARRS-Q has a range of equipment used in road safety research on driver behaviour, including an instrumented four-wheel drive (4WD) vehicle and a driving simulator.
The instrumented 4WD is equipped with sensors such as a multimedia datalogger, physiological devices (EEG, ECG and EMG), laser scanner, radars and eye trackers[20].
The CARRS-Q Driving Simulator was officially launched on 19 March 2010[21]. It is based on a Holden Commodore sedan that was donated for the purpose, and sits on a six degrees of freedom motion platform[22].
The Queensland Road Safety Awards (QRSA) were first held in the year 2000[23] and are a joint initiative of CARRS-Q and the RACQ to "recognise and honour the outstanding efforts of individuals and groups who have started projects or programmes to improve safety on Queensland roads"[24].
CARRS-Q has links with similar organisations worldwide, such as the French National Institute for Transportation Safety Research (INRETS) and University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), through exchange of visiting researchers[25] and collaboration on research papers[26].