We commonly see that companies and individuals do advanced driver training in the hope that this will reduce the risks of accident and death. This is clearly well-meant but more and more research shows that this type of training does not reduce accident rates.

An interesting recent article talks about strategies for dealing with young drivers and is well worth looking at: Link

One article states:

"Despite decades of research indicating driver education does not reduce crash involvement among beginning drivers, it still has tremendous popular appeal as a means to improve driver safety. Formal driver education programs enjoy widespread public acceptance around the world as the preferred way to prepare beginners for licensure. For example, a survey in the United States found that 86% considered driver education courses "very important" in training new drivers to drive safely. Only 2% thought it was not important. When the young driver problem is addressed in public forums, there inevitably is an appeal for more or better driver education. Several comprehensive international reviews of the best scientific evaluations of driver education programs for young beginners all come to the same conclusion: There is no difference in the crash records of driver education graduates compared with equivalent groups of beginners who learned to drive without formal education..." Link

Why driver education does not produce safer drivers

From: "Driver education renaissance?" A F Williams and S A Ferguson, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Arlington, Virginia, USA. Inj. Prev. 2004;10;4-7.

"There is little reason to think driver education should produce drivers less likely to crash. The courses generally are of short duration (for example, 30 hours in-class and six hours in-vehicle); in the available time, it is possible to teach only basic driving skills. There is less opportunity to teach safe driving techniques, and any safety messages that are conveyed can be overwhelmed by ongoing parental, peer, personal, and other social influences that shape driving styles and crash involvement. Such influences largely are beyond the reach of driver education instructors. For the same reasons, many short term high school health education programs aimed at influencing smoking, alcohol, and other drug use have failed, although programs that are comprehensive and longer term, targeting the entire community, have had some success. The audience for driver education courses also may be relatively unmotivated by safety concerns. In surveys, most teenagers say they want to get licensed as soon as possible, and the goal of many driver education students is likely to center on learning enough skills to pass the driving test. Developmental and lifestyle features typical of young adolescents (risk taking, feelings of invulnerability, immature decision making) also make it difficult to influence the way they drive through safety messages.

It is not entirely clear why the advanced driving/skid control courses increase rather than reduce the crash risk of young males. It seems likely that the courses inspire overconfidence and/or young people may create extra opportunities to try out these advanced maneuvers, with peer influences playing a part. In any case, this is an example of how skills learned through driver education can interact with developmental and lifestyle factors typical of young people to produce unintended results."

A Cochrane Systematic Review in 2003 found: .."no evidence that post-licence driver education is effective in preventing road traffic injuries or crashes..." Link

Certainly graduated licensing where learners start on more limited (P) licences and over some years the restrictions are reduced have been shown to be effective and Australia is one country to be actively and effectively implementing these.

Experience in driving does reduce the risk of accident but training after getting the licence does not. Any new training needs to be properly evaluated BEFORE it is implemented and promoted. What we do not want to see is people going to untested training which not only costs considerable money, but has no effect on accidents, or worse still increases accident rates.

We recommend that if you are considering driver training for your employees you ensure that the training has been thoroughly and independently researched to ensure that you meet you duty of care as an employer. Although the training if often fun for the staff who attend it, that is not enough to say that it is having desirable effects on accident rates.

If you would like to find out more about this we will be discussing it at our next MADRIG meeting at QOH. The details are in the May Newsletter or you can email Sheridan at: sheridan.hedges-gillham@qoh.com.au